Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!cmcl2!phri!roy From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: symbolic links are a botch Message-ID: <2756@phri.UUCP> Date: Wed, 24-Jun-87 21:50:51 EDT Article-I.D.: phri.2756 Posted: Wed Jun 24 21:50:51 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 27-Jun-87 14:06:56 EDT References: <2680@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> <6018@brl-smoke.ARPA> Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY) Lines: 15 Summary: "cd" == "set new prefix" In <6018@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) ) writes: > It seems to me we're gradually wobbling our way towards the idea that > the "current working directory" is really just a "prefix" to be used > for relative path resolution. [...] With the prefix approach, the natural > meaning of "cd" is "set new prefix" [...] Indeed, this is exactly the way I explain "cd" to people just learning Unix. I find the approach to be simple and intuitive, and havn't yet run into anyplace where the "set prefix" abstraction has caused any confusion. Of course, most of my users just want to get their work done and don't care about the details of stat(2) and such. -- Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016