Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!convex!convex.COM
From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: /-happy
Message-ID: <105038@convex.convex.com>
Date: 17 Aug 90 02:07:05 GMT
References: <3139@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> <1990Aug16.215045.21300@iwarp.intel.com>
Sender: news@convex.com
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX
Lines: 16

In article <1990Aug16.215045.21300@iwarp.intel.com> merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz) writes:
>| Explain why '/////' is valid in the following statement:
>| cd /./../tmp/////../././bin
>
>The null pathname (look carefully between the consecutive "/"-s, and
>you'll see them there) is a valid synonym for the "current directory".

Well, only until POSIX, after which a null pathname "" is considered an
error and NOT to be a valid synonym for ".".  However, this case continues
to work because adjacent /'s are to be collapsed in the kernel's path-to-
inode routine (possibly lookuppn() or namei() depending on UNIX flavor).

--tom
--
  "UNIX was never designed to keep people from doing stupid things, because 
   that policy would also keep them from doing clever things." [Doug Gwyn]