Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751232AbWBMIMD (ORCPT ); Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:12:03 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751229AbWBMIMD (ORCPT ); Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:12:03 -0500 Received: from zeniv.linux.org.uk ([195.92.253.2]:57809 "EHLO ZenIV.linux.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751228AbWBMIMB (ORCPT ); Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:12:01 -0500 Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:11:51 +0000 From: Al Viro To: Willy Tarreau Cc: Arjan van de Ven , Linda Walsh , Linux-Kernel , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: max symlink = 5? ?bug? ?feature deficit? Message-ID: <20060213081151.GZ27946@ftp.linux.org.uk> References: <43ED5A7B.7040908@tlinx.org> <20060212180601.GU27946@ftp.linux.org.uk> <43EFA63B.30907@tlinx.org> <20060212212504.GX27946@ftp.linux.org.uk> <43EFBCA9.1090501@tlinx.org> <20060213000803.GY27946@ftp.linux.org.uk> <43EFD8BF.1040205@tlinx.org> <20060213073746.GG11380@w.ods.org> <1139816896.2997.19.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <20060213080331.GH11380@w.ods.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20060213080331.GH11380@w.ods.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1117 Lines: 26 On Mon, Feb 13, 2006 at 09:03:31AM +0100, Willy Tarreau wrote: > Hi Arjan, > > On Mon, Feb 13, 2006 at 08:48:15AM +0100, Arjan van de Ven wrote: > > > > > I don't know exactly why recursion is used to follow symlinks, > > > which at first thought seems like it could be iterated, but > > > I've not checked the code, there certainly are specific reasons > > > for this. > > > > the problem is not following symlinks. the problem is symlinks to > > symlink to symlink to ... > > That's how I understood it, but I only thought about easy cases. Now, > I can imagine cross-FS links and I don't see an easy way to resolve > them :-/ The real problem is that there is no promise that resolution of a symlink consists of following some path. It's a very common case, all right, but not the only one. And trying to take that into account makes iterative schemes very ugly. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/