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From: ct@dde.uucp (Claus Tondering)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Symbolic links and RFS
Message-ID: <563@Aragorn.dde.uucp>
Date: 18 May 89 11:30:24 GMT
Organization: Dansk Data Elektronik A/S, Herlev, Denmark
Lines: 32

System V Release 4.0 will support both symbolic links and RFS.

Question: If a remote file is a symbolic link, will that symbolic link
be interpreted on the remote machine or on the client?

Consider the following scenario:

Remote machine:
	File /alpha/foo is a symbolic link containing "/beta/foo".
	File /beta/foo contains text "Hello".
	Directory /alpha has been advertised as resource ALPHA.

My machine:
	Resource ALPHA has been mounted as /gamma.
	File /beta/foo contains text "Good bye".

I now read from file /gamma/foo. Will I read "Hello" or "Good bye"?

Either answer seems to break the transparentness of RFS:

If the symbolic link is interpreted on the remote machine, I cannot
create a remote file as a symbolic link to one of my local files. This
is not transparent.

If the symbolic link is interpreted on the local machine, the contents
of a remote file (in this case the file "foo" under resource ALPHA) depends
on the eyes that see it. This is not transparent. And it is also rather
useless.
-- 
Claus Tondering
Dansk Data Elektronik A/S, Herlev, Denmark
E-mail: ct@dde.dk    or    ...!uunet!mcvax!dkuug!dde!ct