extending 1003.1 to include sym links

[Moderator, John S. Quarterman]

From: Clive Feather <uunet!relay.EU.net!ixi!clive>

In article <580 at longway.TIC.COM> std-unix at uunet.uu.net writes:
> The posix 1003.1 standard has cleverly evaded naming of bits
> in the mode field of the stat structure. it does this by
> defining tests (like S_ISDIR(mode) rather than (mode&S_IFMT)==S_IFDIR).
> the question is, how do people deal with sym links? I simply
> added a S_ISLNK macro but would prefer to go with the flow
> if there is one.

There is a set of changes to the standard being proposed under the title
1003.1b (the copy I have is draft 0.1, May 19, 1989). This adds the test macro
S_ISLNK(m), and the function lstat(). stat() and lstat() differ only in that
stat() never returns information about a symbolic link, whereas lstat() does.
Because you cannot open a symbolic link, fstat() is like stat() here.

The draft defines two new functions:

    int readlink (char *path, char *buf, int buf_size);

    int symlink (char *target_path, char *symlink_path);

The functions that operate on links rather than the file pointed to are:

    lstat() readlink() rename() remove() rmdir() symlink() unlink()

The effects of the following functions form an open issue:

    chown() chmod() link() utime()
-- 
Clive D.W. Feather  | IXI Limited           | +44 223 462 131 (v)
clive at ixi.co.uk     | 62-74 Burleigh Street | +44 224 462 132 (fax)
...!uunet!ixi!clive | Cambridge  U.K.       |-----------------------------
                    | CB1  1OJ              | Silly quote being thought up


Volume-Number: Volume 19, Number 17