On Jul 4, 2005, at 4:26 PM, yamt@mwd.biglobe.ne.jp wrote:

>> Description:
>>
>     realpath(3) (or, more generally, userland code which resolves
>     symlinks by itsself using readlink(2)) doesn't handle
>     magic symlinks and can cause problems.
>     it's subtle because it isn't obvious which of userland or kernel
>     resolves a symlink for a given application.

Perhaps readlink(2) should translate the magic symlink?  But that  
would break ls(1).  Perhaps we could add a readlink2(2) that takes a  
flags argument, allowing us to specify "raw" or "translated".   
readlink(2) would default to "translated", and ls(1) would be changed  
to use "raw".

Thoughts?


-- thorpej