unlink safe before close?

Kent Landfield kent at ssbell.UUCP
Tue May 9 13:48:45 AEST 1989


In article <910 at mks.UUCP> rand at mks.UUCP (Randall Howard) writes:
>Of course any SVID/POSIX compliant system where unlink before close
>is dangerous is just plain buggy.  However, in the real world, systems
>like MS-DOS and OS/2 corrupt the file system or give errors, respectively
>in this case.  As a result, and in the interests of maximal portability
>it is always a good idea to close files before unlinking.

The original question was specifically targeted towards creating
temporary files on UNIX machines. The rest of the world is targeting
compliance with 1003.1 POSIX. That should be your guide to portability.
If the "real world systems" do not comply with the standard, they should
be fixed. BTW, FYI, word has it that Bill Gates was claiming MS was
going to make OS/2 1003.1 compliant for government procurements real 
soon...

Now if you want to talk about "Real systems"..... :-)
		
		-Kent+
---
Kent Landfield               UUCP:     kent at ssbell
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