Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals
Subject: Re: Slashes in file names
Message-ID: <6103@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 17 Feb 91 21:38:07 GMT
References: <1991Feb14.091853.19090@kithrup.COM> <15898.27bc3908@levels.sait.edu.au> <1991Feb15.145944.23905@athena.mit.edu>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 22

>  I can't find a similar restriction in the 4.3tahoe kernel, although the
>structure is noticeably different, so I may be missing it.

You must have a funny version of 4.3-tahoe, then; the structure of the
4.3-tahoe "ufs_namei.c" we have here isn't that different from 4.3BSD's
(<100 lines of output from "diff").  The restriction is still there in
the version of 4.3-tahoe we have.

>My suspicion, though, is that 4.3tahoe (and 4.3reno and eventually 4.4)
>remove this restriction.

4.3-reno's structure *is* considerably different; however, the
restriction is *still* there, alas, although it's imposed at the system
call layer and in the NFS server code, rather than in the file system
code.

It's not inherent to the BSD file system, of course; SunOS 4.x, System V
Release 4, and probably lots of other systems with BSD file systems
don't have it (I wouldn't be surprised if Ultrix and HP-UX removed it as
well).  (When I removed it from SunOS 4.0, I tested it by making a
symbolic link to "/vmunix" named "/UNIX(R)", where "(R)" is the ISO
Latin #1 "registered trademark" symbol (character code 0xAE).)