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From: web@farpoint.austin.ibm.com (Bill Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: Why remove() doesn't remove (symbolic links)?
Keywords: remove(), symbolic link
Message-ID: <7309@awdprime.UUCP>
Date: 5 May 91 17:03:48 GMT
References: <1991May03.174126.13324@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> <1991May3.185244.1275@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <1991May03.202209.432@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Sender: news@awdprime.UUCP
Organization: IBM AWD, Austin
Lines: 26

||> In article <1991May03.202209.432@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> ghe@physics.orst.edu writes:
||> >The remove() system call fails to remove
||> >the sybolic links.
||> 
|
|When I try to call remove(b) ('b' is a symbolic link to a directory 'a'),
|perror prints:
|
|remove: Not a directory
|
|I still don't know why.

Remove is implemented in libc.  It calls unlink or rmdir to remove files or
directories.  To determine which to do, it calls stat.  And therein lies
the problem.  If it's a symlink to a directory, stat follows the link and
the code tries to rmdir the symlink.  Naturally, the rmdir system call fails
with ENOTDIR.  This is also a problem if the object is a dangling symbolic
link.  The code should use lstat, not stat.  BUG!

web
---
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Bill Baker             Internet: web@glasnost.austin.ibm.com
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