ph@miro.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert) (02/18/89)
I'm new to this news group. How do I report system bugs to sgi - is there an email address for this? (the bug: "ln -s" always creates link files with permission 000 on our 4D/70 running 4D1-3.138 -- not a nice feature)
vjs@rhyolite.SGI.COM (Vernon Schryver) (02/18/89)
In article <10051@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, ph@miro.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert) writes: > (the bug: "ln -s" always creates link files with permission 000 on our 4D/70 > running 4D1-3.138 -- not a nice feature) This is not a bug, but a more than 3 year old historical artifact of the implementation of symbolic links in what was at the time a SVR0 directory/namei() structure. The permissions of link itself do not matter in the SGI EFS, as in the BSD FFS. The permissions of the ultimate file or directory are what matter. One should probably say that the display of any permissions on the link by ls(1) is a bug, and that the garbage permissions on a link in a BSD FFS file system are another bug (in 4.xBSD). An attempt to change the permissions of the link itself with chmod(1) or chmod(2) obviously have to do the "wrong" thing. One might say that is undesirable, but that is how BSD-style symbolic links are defined. The link must be follow-able by everyone, no matter what the permission of the ultimate file or directory, if any. Use readlink(2) to get the contents of a symbolic link. Vernon Schryver Silicon Graphics