Hello all.
Would somebody care to comment on the following:
[root@jld src]# ls -l
total 12720
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 1024 Jun 27 14:04 RPM
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Jul 4 11:59 linux ->
linux-2.2.9
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jul 4 11:53 linux-2.2.10
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jul 4 11:46 linux-2.2.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12969457 Jul 4 11:48
linux-2.2.9-Mandrake-tar.gz
[root@jld src]# ln -sf linux-2.2.10 linux
[root@jld src]# ls -l
total 12720
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 1024 Jun 27 14:04 RPM
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Jul 4 11:59 linux ->
linux-2.2.9
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jul 4 11:53 linux-2.2.10
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jul 4 12:02 linux-2.2.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12969457 Jul 4 11:48
linux-2.2.9-Mandrake-tar.gz
[root@jld src]# rm linux
rm: d�truire `linux'? y
[root@jld src]# ln -sf linux-2.2.10 linux
[root@jld src]# ls -l
total 12720
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 1024 Jun 27 14:04 RPM
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jul 4 12:03 linux ->
linux-2.2.10
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jul 4 11:53 linux-2.2.10
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jul 4 12:02 linux-2.2.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12969457 Jul 4 11:48
linux-2.2.9-Mandrake-tar.gz
Please note that the first ln command seems to have been ignored (linux
still
points linux-2.2.9, although 1) I had the -f modifier, and 2) I was root
(since
I was working in the kernel source tree) so I should have permissions.
This is on a newly installed Mandrake 6.0 on a clean partition.
I looked at the man page for ln and there it says that the -f modifier
"will remove existing targets" whatever that means. It also says that
this option is equivalent to --force and here the name seems
self-explanatory.
This is precisely in _this_ sense that I wanted to use the option, i.e.
make the link point to whatever I order it to, whether or not it was
already pointing somewhere else ...
I _think_ that this is the first time that I catch this kind of
behaviour,
i.e. in previous linux distributions I'm pretty sure that it _did_
behave
as I would like it to.
So what has changed ??? the ln binary ??? I don't believe it, but even
so,
_why_ ? otherwise it has to be either the kernel ext2 code (which at the
time
was the one from Mandrake) or possibly the glibc 2.1 ???
Would anybody care to comment ?
Thanks anyway.
--
Jean-Louis Debert [EMAIL PROTECTED]
74 Annemasse France
old Linux fan
