[comp.unix.wizards] /../...

peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (06/10/89)

In article <3028@rti.UUCP>, mcm@rti.UUCP (Mike Mitchell) writes:
> What happens if you unlink the '..' entry in the '/' directory
> and mkdir a directory called '..'?  I'll tell you what happens.  You get a
> directory called '..' accessible from '/'.  You can now chdir to '/..' and
> get to a new directory.  Put anything you want in that directory.  Put
> symbolic links pointing to NFS systems there. Put mount points for NFS there.

I love it. It's beautiful. It's clean. It's even damnit consistent. It has a
few problems, but they're minor.

> Of course, if you want to extend a local group of systems into a larger
> collection of systems, just add another '..' directory to the '/..' directory.

This is less friendly. pwd or getcwd() or whatever are gonna get
discombobulated. Too many special cases... make it like area codes, maybe:

	/../nearsystem
	/../virginia/farsystem
-- 
Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation.

Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180.
Personal: ...!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.

loverso@Xylogics.COM (John Robert LoVerso) (06/11/89)

In article <3028@rti.UUCP>, mcm@rti.UUCP (Mike Mitchell) writes:
> What happens if you unlink the '..' entry in the '/' directory
> and mkdir a directory called '..'?  I'll tell you what happens.  You get a
> directory called '..' accessible from '/'.  You can now chdir to '/..' and
> get to a new directory.

This is exactly the scheme used by CMU's RFS (as included with MACH).
`/' is the root, but `/..' is the the sticky concept of `super-root'.
As I understand it, the actual `root' used for booting (at least for
MACH on the Multimax) is in `/../.LOCALROOT'.

John