Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!munnari!uqcspe!qfagus!anvil!michi
From: michi@anvil.oz (Michael Henning)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: find: bad status-- /u/tu
Summary: It happens with symbolic links too
Message-ID: <350@anvil.oz>
Date: 7 Apr 89 02:40:59 GMT
References: <948@rush.howp.com>
Organization: Anvil Designs Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Australia
Lines: 43

In article <4341@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM>, wescott@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM (Mike Wescott) writes:
> In article <948@rush.howp.com> bob@rush.howp.com (Bob Ames) writes:
> > /u/tutor/Filecabinet/Profiles/9600bps:A2
> > find: bad status-- /u/tutor/Filecabinet/practice/sample6.clf
> > /u/tutor/.history
> > find: bad status-- /u/hello
> 
> > The bad status messages continue for the rest of the /u directory.
> 
> One of the directories that find goes through right before the "bad status"
> messages start probably has a ".." that is not the parent that find used
> to get to the directory.
> 

This is the case if there is a symbolic link to a directory. Try the
following:

	1) Make a symbolic link to a directory

	2) cd to the directory the symbolic link is pointing to

	3) cd ..

If you now do a pwd, it will tell you that you back to where you came
from, but an ls will show that you are now in the directory which is the
parent of the directory the symbolic link is pointing to. I believe that
this problem is caused by the shell which keeps the current directory
in a string and manipulates it by modifying that string (i.e. when you
use cd .., the shell removes the last component of the cwd string) instead
of doing a getcwd() every time.

My question is, has that problem been solved on BSD systems, and does the find
command work correctly with symbolic links under BSD ?  We are also plagued
by the bad status messages here, and I would like to know whether I should
get stuck into the vendor for a bug fix (we are running AIX 2.2.1).

					Michi.

-- 
               | The opinions expressed are my own, not those of my employer. |
               |                                                              |
               | Michael (Michi) Henning                                      |
               | - We have three Michaels here, that's why they call me Michi |