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From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Hard links to directories: why not?
Message-ID: <3761@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 26 Jul 90 20:56:13 GMT
References: <1990Jul23.083256.17790@athena.mit.edu> <3742@auspex.auspex.com> <1990Jul25.044952.20933@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 10

>  Yes, before the rename system call existed, all mv's did basically
>the same thing as cp (but they deleted the original after successful
>writing of the copy).  However, when rename was created, many vendors
>(although not all, I'm sure) changed mv to use rename exclusively and
>to fail if the rename failed.

Pretty ****ing dumb of them, given that the BSD "mv" didn't do something
that silly, as I remember (4.3BSD's sure doesn't); if they got
"rename()" from 4.2BSD, one presumes they would have gotten a rational
"mv" from there as well.