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From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,alt.security
Subject: Re: Hard links to directories: why not?
Message-ID: <3724@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 22 Jul 90 19:54:54 GMT
References: <18461@rpp386.cactus.org> <1990Jul22.035130.12559@zoo.toronto.edu> <18466@rpp386.cactus.org>
Followup-To: comp.unix.wizards
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 17

>My [ second ] favorite question is why doesn't the SunOS ln command
>permit the use of the -f flag for blasting an existent target flag?

Because the (4.3)BSD "ln" command doesn't seem to, either:

	auspex% cp /home/unix_src/bsd4.3/bin/ln.c .
	auspex% cc -o ln ln.c
	auspex% echo >foo
	auspex% echo >bar
	auspex% ./ln -f foo bar
	bar: File exists

and because the command sequence

	rm -f bar && ln -f foo bar

for example, would have done the job quite nicely....