IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-07-25
Set an active (not passive) /hurd/symlink translator on a node.
< antrik> that's strange: the file doesn't look like a symlink in ls output
-- but it behaves like one...
< antrik> using firmlink instead of symlink yields less confusing
results...
< gg0> how does it behaves like one?
< antrik> perhaps the symlink mechanism only fully works for a passive
symlink translator, not an active one
< antrik> gg0: if you access it, you actually get the linked file contents
< antrik> it's only ls that's confused
< antrik> it might be because ls -l uses O_NOFOLLOW, which results in
O_NOTRANS, so it sees the original file contents
< gg0> stat says it's still 12264 bytes
< antrik> stat also seems to use NOFOLLOW
< antrik> wc will show the "correct" size
< gg0> ok
< antrik> if you set it as passive translator, it works as expected... but
then you better don't forget removing it, as it won't go away after a
reboot :-)
< antrik> but as I said, you can just ignore the weirdness -- or use
firmlink instead
< antrik> the thing is, if symlink is set as a passive translator, the
filesystem handles it specially, so it really looks like a symlink to
programs using NOFOLLOW. that's not the case with an active symlink... so
programs using NOFOLLOW simply do not see the active symlink at all
< antrik> firmlink OTOH ignores NOFOLLOW, so you always see the linked-to
file