Re: symlinks with 2.1 kernels
On Mon, 2 Feb 1998, Adrian Bridgett wrote:
> I don't know how we should handle this, but it looks like the new 2.1
> kernels (>2.1.80?) are going to break quite a few packages:
Christoph and I tracked this down last sunday. The summary as we see it is
this:
- 2.1.8x is no longer posix conforming, chown() attempts to change the
ownership of the target of the link
- In 2.1.8x there is a new function call called lchown in the kernel
that did NOT exist before
- The only way to change the ownership of a file is to use lchown()
- llibc6 currently makes chown = lchown because linux lacked a lchown
call
- dpkg, tar, chown and others will have to be changed to use the new bsd
lchown function
- libc6 will have to have special chown functions written that emulate
the new behavior on older kernels, most importantly providing a cover
for lchown that calls chown in the case where there is no lchown kernel
call.
BSD uses this 'new' system and claims it is posix conforming, but
apparently the posix draft is a bit ambiguos. I think the lack of a lchown
function in posix implies they intended you to use chown on symlinks.
I just send a note to Micheal about the fix need to dpkg - this will have
no effect until libc6 supports the new function.
Jason
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