Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!umd5!brl-adm!adm!rbj@icst-cmr.arpa From: rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: A suggestion: .... == ../../.. Message-ID: <13087@brl-adm.ARPA> Date: 22 Apr 88 22:06:32 GMT Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA Lines: 29 From: Tim Chase Unfortunately, the non-beauty of many current implementations is that "." and ".." are finding their way into kernel now that we have things like rename(2) and chroot(2). I think the functionality of these, and other, new functions is worth it and may provide some precedent for things like the "..." suggestion. Maybe now that knowledge of "." and ".." is both in the file system and the kernel, they ought to be removed from the file system. That would at least save some disk space, but would probably break programs that read directories. Not so! While `.' could possibly be removed from the file system (but then how would you remove a file called `-r'), the kernel has only partial knowledge of `..'. All it knows is when to manipulate it in special cases, such as mkdir, rmdir, and rename; and when to treat it specially, at mount points, the root, and when chroot'ed. One might argue that this info could be stored in the inode itself, and this might indeed be plausible. UUCP: {uunet,uwvax!uwmcsd1}!marque!introl!tim Phone: +1 414 276-2937 (Root Boy) Jim Cottrell National Bureau of Standards Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688 The opinions expressed are solely my own and do not reflect NBS policy or agreement I'd like MY data-base JULIENNED and stir-fried!