On 01/04/2012 01:32 PM, Anders Kaseorg wrote: > This refusal makes it impossible to overwrite a hard link with a symlink > _atomically_.
It is already impossible to overwrite a directory with a symlink atomically; then again, the only time rename() allows overwriting a directory is if it is empty, and removing an empty directory before putting a symlink in its place is not a form of data loss. But whether the inability to atomically overwrite a directory with a symlink should carry over to a refusal to atomically overwrite a regular file with a symlink is a different matter. >> Personally, I prefer the semantics of 'mv -f --backup=numbered' so use a >> shell alias. > > mv --backup=numbered is not atomic; it expands to two rename() syscalls, > between which the target doesn’t exist at all. Maybe we should fix that, to make mv --backup use link()/rename() rather than rename()/rename(), so that there is no window where the target doesn't exist. -- Eric Blake [email protected] +1-919-301-3266 Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
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