monte@oblio.UUCP (Monte Pickard) (01/12/87)
Seems to me that allowing /etc/mvdir to move /etc is a bug. The script requires that /etc exists to complete successfully. (This is true in SVR2 and SVR3) Does anyone agree?
jrb@wdl1.UUCP (John R Blaker) (01/13/87)
/ wdl1:comp.bugs.sys5 / monte@oblio.UUCP (Monte Pickard) / 10:32 pm Jan 11, 1987 / Seems to me that allowing /etc/mvdir to move /etc is a bug. The script requires that /etc exists to complete successfully. (This is true in SVR2 and SVR3) Does anyone agree? ----------
ian@sq.UUCP (01/14/87)
In my humble opinion, the very *existence* of mvdir as separate from the normal mv command is a bug. There is nothing in the filesystem that prevents a C program from moving a directory from point A to point B in one filesystem. But the System V mv command only moves directories laterally (i.e., will only rename them within the same parent directory). And I can see no reason that Joe User should have to come begging to the superuser everytime he wants to make a trivial change in his directory structure. If Joe User can rm his directories with rmdir, why can't he move them? (on SV and SVR2, mvdir is rwxr--r--, so only the superuser can move directories). Seventh Edition UNIX had this facility (i.e., a mv command that worked); in fact if you are source licensed for various UNIX source versions you can run the V7 mv on system V and use it instead of mvdir. I tried it once (when I worked at UofT and had source access) and it worked; this is not a warranty that it will work on all versions of System V for all time. Seventh Edition UNIX came out in 1979 - hey, that's eight years ago. Too bad System V hasn't caught up technically. As an exercise for the reader: write a C program that does what mvdir does. You have to be root to run it, of course.