getcwd() and friends.

[John F Carr]

In article <FLEE.89Apr16010720 at shire.cs.psu.edu> 
 flee at shire.cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee) writes:

>2. The open may block.  Kenneth Almquist suggests O_NDELAY, which is
>fine.  Another alternative is to say that O_TOKEN doesn't block;
>blocking is only useful if you open for reading or writing.

Suppose you are using NFS over a slow network?  The directory lookups
may take time, as will the actual open.  The same problem exists with
slow local media.  You can't guarantee proper error reporting without
blocking.

--
   John Carr             "When they turn the pages of history,
   jfc at Athena.mit.edu     When these days have passed long ago,
   bloom-beacon!          Will they read of us with sadness
   athena.mit.edu!jfc     For the seeds that we let grow?"  --Neil Peart