> > Without writing my own code, how can I open the symlink file (not the > > file it points to) with something like "od" to see whats inside it? > > I think that all that is inside it is text with the path to the file it > is linked to. If you look at the length of a symlink, it is always the > same as the number of characters in the path+file it points to.
This is likely the case for symlinks, but every directory entry has a few bytes of data with it which can be read somehow, so it's probably true for every type of directory entry. Eg nedit used to read these few bytes and offer them for editing when being given a directory(!) instead of a file - now there's a sanity check in there producing an error. Is it the same open() call which would read a symlink without dereferencing it? Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is possibly list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
