Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mtxinu!ed
From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.4bsd
Subject: Re: 4.3 Tahoe rrestore bug
Keywords: 4.3,tahoe,restore
Message-ID: <701@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: 27 Nov 88 03:30:31 GMT
References: <23669@pprg.unm.edu> <921@bacchus.dec.com> <486@auspex.UUCP> <936@bacchus.dec.com>
Reply-To: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley
Lines: 21

># 	1) The directory library routines use "getdirentries()" in 2.x
># 	   and 3.x releases, and "getdents()" in 4.0.

>One question, if you (or anyone else) knows: why was this change made?  I
>know Sun would never, ever make a gratuitous, incompatible change to the
>semantics of a library routine.  What was the motive (this time)?

The change was made for NFS, since the format of a directory on a remote
system can not be assumed to be the same as the local system.  Thus,
the NFS protocol passes directory information around in a standard
format, and it is up to the local system to interpret it in a sensible
way.  The library *interface* is unchanged, and its behaviour when pointed
to a directory is likewise unchanged.  Only when the new library routines
are pointed to a non-directory is anything different.  I don't believe the
4.2 directory routines' behaviour were defined for non-directories.

-- 
Ed Gould                    mt Xinu, 2560 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
{ucbvax,uunet}!mtxinu!ed    +1 415 644 0146

"I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady.  I'll fight them as an engineer."