Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: What kind of things would you want in the GNU OS
Message-ID: <1809@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 10 Jun 89 20:27:38 GMT
References: <19964@adm.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 18


 >In the case of symbolic links, this process is interrupted when the kernel
 >finds, in some intermediate directory, not an inode number, but an
 >alternate path name.

You must be thinking of some flavor of symbolic links other than the one
used in the UNIX systems with which I'm familiar.  In the latter, the
name lookup code finds an inode number, but the inode points to a file
of type "symbolic link", which means the contents of the file are an
alternate path name.  This means the system has to "read" that file and
*then* continue the lookup process. 

 >At this point the kernel must begin again at the root
 >directory, retracing it's steps through another sequence of
 >directories.

Assuming, of course, that the symbolic link's contents are an absolute
path name.