Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: removing hard linked directories
Message-ID: <6833@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 26 Mar 91 19:19:20 GMT
References: <1991Mar21.025311.9821@nmt.edu> <1991Mar21.100031.12027@athena.mit.edu> <8413@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 12

>Some versions of UNIX do not have the rename() call. As such, to do a mv,
>they implement a link(), then an unlink(). Here is what probably happened.

Well, maybe.

On the other hand, I've seen Ms. Milner post in "comp.sys.sun" in the
past; if the machine in question is a Sun, its version of UNIX most
definitely has "rename()" (her postings indicated that she's not running
Sun-1s with Unisoft V7 :-)).  And yes, the Sun code *is*, in fact, a bit
brain-damaged; the "rename()" code gets halfway through the operation,
and then bails out because the directory is sticky, without backing the
stuff it's already done out.