If I were going to redesign the unix syscall interface, i would add an
explicit "context" of some sort (perhaps realized as a file
descriptor) to all filesystem operations which take pathnames.

This would make it fairly straightforward to add modifiers (i.e., "use
real, not effective uid", "don't chase symlinks", "regular files
only") without having to create a whole bunch of new syscalls; the
non-orthogonality of stat/lstat/fstat/fhstat/etc then collapse into a
single fstat-like call done with different contexts..

					- Bill