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Date:      28 Mar 2002 18:24:58 -0800
From:      "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@blarg.net>
To:        FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   docs/36449: symlink(7) manual doesn't mention trailing slash, etc.
Message-ID:  <cclmccglfp.mcc@localhost.localdomain>

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>Number:         36449
>Category:       docs
>Synopsis:       symlink(7) manual doesn't mention trailing slash, etc.
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-doc
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          doc-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Mar 28 18:30:01 PST 2002
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Gary W. Swearingen
>Release:        FreeBSD 4.5-STABLE i386
>Organization:
none
>Environment:
n/a
================
>Description:

The symlink(7) manual doesn't mention how many/most/all commands handle
symbolic link arguments which have trailing slashes.  And the "Commands
not traversing ..." section omits rule-violators "chown/chmod/chgrp"
which also do not follow symlinks without a trailing slash.  (Note that
some commands, like "cat" (and presumably all others) do follow
symlinks without a trailing slash.)
================
>How-To-Repeat:
n/a
================
>Fix:

This probably requires long study and research to confidently fix
this manual.  Probably an interim fix should just add something about
the three other rule-violators and a warning (in it's own section or
near the beginning of the description section) something like this:

    The handling of symbolic links cannot easily be described for all
    cases, but in most cases, referring to a symbolic link by using its
    name followed immediately by one or more slashes ("/") will cause
    the system to treat it as the name of the thing the symbolic link
    refers to.  This "following of the link" goes no further if the
    thing referred to is also a symbolic link.  Note that when other
    parts of this file refer to "symbolic links named as command
    arguments", they only refer to such links which do not have trailing
    slashes.

If nothing else can be done soon, the manual should say:

    This manual is untrustworthy, especially regarding symbolic links
    named with trailing slashes which can cause suprising behavior.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:

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