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From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: How can unlinking be postponed?
Message-ID: <1359@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 8-Sep-85 01:58:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1359
Posted: Sun Sep  8 01:58:24 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Sep-85 03:04:07 EDT
References: <516@riccb.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 18

> ...  Does the directory entry disappear immediately but not
> the i-node and its associated disk space?

Exactly.

> If that's so, shouldn't any
> syscall except read return an error value since the process making that
> call is under the reasonable impression that the file's still there when
> it isn't?

? Any meaningful system call (e.g., lseek, stat) still works.  Only
an attempt to locate the unlinked directory entry will fail.  There
is no reason to put special-case code for this into the kernel.

> Is there no way for a file to be removed upon a process' exit?

You can use onexit() if your system has it (it probably doesn't).
Any file made by tmpfile(3) will vanish upon process termination.