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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!cmcl2!beta!hp
From: hp@beta.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: symbolic links are a botch
Message-ID: <6163@beta.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Jun-87 21:08:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: beta.6163
Posted: Wed Jun 10 21:08:29 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jun-87 06:39:28 EDT
References: <2629@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> <390@murphy.UUCP>
Organization: Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, N.M.
Lines: 36
Keywords: file system, file name resolution
Summary: how about a ",,"?

In article <390@murphy.UUCP>, dave@murphy.UUCP (Snipe Hunter) writes:
> 
> I'm not so sure I feel comfortable with treating ".." specially in the
> kernel, though.  The reason is that, if you do that, then if you have
> a symlink which contains ".." in its resolution path, the place that ".."
> refers to can be different depending on how you got there.  Here's an

I agree -- but, on the other hand, it *would* sometimes be nice to be
about to treat ".." as the "back" operator (I assume "back" means
follow the path I took to get there, whereas "up" means go up one
level from where I am now regardless of how I got there?)  So why
not create another operator -- ",,"?  (Or call it whatever you like.)
You could define ".." to be the "back" operator, while ",," is "up".
That way, users who don't know about symlinks can use ".." naively,
and users who are worried about links to things like ../include/f.h
can use ,,.  You get a choice.

> Does this make sense, or have I misunderstood you completely?
> 
> Dave Cornutt, Gould Computer Systems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
> [Ignore header, mail to these addresses]
> UUCP:  ...!{sun,pur-ee,brl-bmd,seismo,bcopen,rb-dc1}!gould!dcornutt
>  or ...!{ucf-cs,allegra,codas,hcx1}!novavax!gould!dcornutt
> ARPA: dcornutt@gswd-vms.arpa

Makes sense to me -- but I'll always take the system which lets me
choose (that's why I use Unix, where I can choose between shells
and windowing systems, instead of staying on a Mac or something).


..
	...Akkana         Center for Nonlinear Studies, LANL
	akkana%cnls@lanl.gov    hp@lanl.gov     ihnp4!lanl!hp

"I think I'll take a walk.  Hmm, wonder where this wire goes?"
			-- Max Headroom