Bug#2537: Symlink error in NFS-mounted directory

[Harald Schueler <hs@ILP.Physik.Uni-Essen.DE>]

Package: netstd
Version: 2.01-1

nfsd/mountd version 2.2beta5
Kernel 1.3.56

Try the following in a directory NFS-mounted from a Linux host
(to Linux or AIX):

<Boso>:~$ ln -s a b
ln: cannot symbolic link `a' to `b': No such file or directory
<Boso>:~$ ls -l b
lrwxrwxrwx   1 hs       hs           1024 Mar 14 16:38 b -> a

So the link _is_ created (correctly), but symlink(2) returns ENOENT.
The error is not in the client code, as I tried AIX as client and server
also. It seems that nfsd/mountd checks for the existence of the file being
pointed to. This is false and confuses programs that use symbolic links
for locking purposes (e.g. Netscape).

/etc/fstab (client):
zoppo:/home  /home  nfs  rw  0   0

/etc/exports (server):
/home        Boso(rw,no_root_squash)


Harald Schueler
Universitaet Essen                                    Tel +49-201-1832456
Fachbereich 7                                         Fax +49-201-1832120
45117 Essen                              Email hs@ILP.Physik.Uni-Essen.DE