[comp.unix.wizards] RTFM: was Re: Should find traverse symbolic links?

asg@sage.cc.purdue.edu (The Grand Master) (02/26/91)

>In article <1991Feb25.130613.2553@phri.nyu.edu> roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes:
>>	I was surprised to observe today that if you do "find dir ..." and
>>dir is a symbolic link to a directory, the directory isn't entered.
There is an option to find (at least under dynix's version of BSD4.3)
called -follow. This option allows the descent of find into symlink 
directories.
				The Grand Master
					Bruce

rbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim) (02/26/91)

In article <6817@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> asg@sage.cc.purdue.edu (The Grand Master) writes:
?>In article <1991Feb25.130613.2553@phri.nyu.edu> roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes:
?>>	I was surprised to observe today that if you do "find dir ..." and
?>>dir is a symbolic link to a directory, the directory isn't entered.
?There is an option to find (at least under dynix's version of BSD4.3)
?called -follow. This option allows the descent of find into symlink 
?directories.
?				The Grand Master
?					Bruce

The answer is no, find should not traverse symlinks.
Unless you tell it to. GNU find also uses -follow. 

And BTW, Sequent has yet to produce a version of BSD4.3.
For a good time, see the discussion in comp.sys.sequent.
-- 
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