Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:22976 alt.security:1134
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!mvadh
From: mvadh@cbnews.att.com (andrew.d.hay)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,alt.security
Subject: Re: Hard links to directories: why not?
Keywords: ln, directories, security...
Message-ID: <1990Jul19.121048.16332@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 19 Jul 90 12:10:48 GMT
References: <5222@milton.u.washington.edu> <10527@odin.corp.sgi.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 17

In article <10527@odin.corp.sgi.com> schuman@sgi.com (Aaron Schuman) writes:
[]
"A foolish user could create loops in the directory structure.

it would be easy to have ln disallow this:
1)	resolve argv[1] and argv[2] to absolute paths
2)	determine which path is shorter
3)	strncmp() both paths for the shorter length
4)	if you have a match, you're trying to create a loop

this would also let you safely mv directories...

-- 
Andrew Hay		+------------------------------------------------------+
Ragged Individualist	|	 But I thought we were *ALL* iconoclasts!      |
AT&T-BL Ward Hill MA	|		I was just trying to fit in!!!	       |
a.d.hay@att.com		+------------------------------------------------------+