context-dependent symlink

context-dependent symlink

Posted Aug 12, 2005 22:05 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)
Parent article: Time to merge GFS?

The objections to context-dependent links include ... the fact that they are specific to one filesystem [type].

If that's a valid objection, we need to get rid of the "followlink" inode operation. Its existence specifically says that the meaning of symbolic link contents is filesystem-type-dependent. The common path walk code could as easily do a "readlink" inode operation and interpret the contents as a path itself. So someone wanted it that way.

In the continual battle between filesystem type consistency and filesystem type diversity, the VFS interface is what defines the front.

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