Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:11944 comp.unix.xenix:5166
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: How to determine file being redirected to in C
Keywords: redirection
Message-ID: <1105@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 1 Mar 89 20:14:46 GMT
References: <10@sherpa.UUCP> <475@ispi.UUCP>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Distribution: na
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 10


 >Use the stat() and fstat() functions, then compare the inode numbers 
 >in the structure.  If they are the same then the two files are identical.

Wrong.  If the inode numbers (st_ino) *AND* the file system IDs (st_dev)
are the same, then the two files are identical.  If just the inode
numbers are the same, you can't conclude anything about whether the
files are the same or not.  They could have the same inode number but be
on two different file systems; inode numbers are *not* unique across
file systems.