Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!ulysses!hector!ekrell
From: ekrell@hector.UUCP (Eduardo Krell)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: A suggestion: .... == ../../..
Message-ID: <10253@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Date: 23 Apr 88 17:46:25 GMT
References: <13087@brl-adm.ARPA>
Sender: netnews@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com
Reply-To: ekrell@hector (Eduardo Krell)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 12

In article <13087@brl-adm.ARPA> rbj@icst-cmr.arpa writes:

>While `.' could possibly be removed from the file system (but then
>how would you remove a file called `-r')

The kernel, or more specifically namei(), doesn't actually open the
directory to look for "." in a filename like "./-r". It knows what
the current working directory is (it's in the user block) and it
uses that instead of looking for a "." entry.
    
    Eduardo Krell                   AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ

    UUCP: {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ulysses!ekrell		ARPA: ekrell@ulysses.att.com