Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!munnari!mulga!ditmela!latcs1!vertical!greg
From: greg@vertical.oz (Greg Bond)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: A suggestion: .... == ../../..
Message-ID: <75@vertical.oz>
Date: 15 Apr 88 03:26:25 GMT
Reply-To: greg@vertical.oz (Greg Bond)
Organization: Vertical Software, Melbourne, Australia
Lines: 25
Summary: This works in Netware/Dos; I like it

As the title suggests, this is a feature I would like to see
in unix. (Yes, let's change the world...)

Under Netware on PCs, the command 
	cd ....\run
is equivalent to
	cd ..\..\..\run
but much easier to think and type.
(NB: on DOS '\' is path specifier, not '/')

This generalises: . = current dir, .. = parent dir, ... = grandparent etc.

This could be done in the shells (but only in restricted cases,
similar to ~expansion). It would more usefully be done in the kernel
routine (namei?) that maps names to inodes (where the symbolic links
are traversed).

Do others like this? Has anyone done it? I would guess that the code
is simple.

Greg.
-- 
Gregory Bond,  Vertical Software, Melbourne, Australia
ACSnet: greg@vertical.oz,              UUCP: uunet!vertical.oz!greg
Gad! Did *I* start those lightbulb jokes?