bug#21130: test fail: 'tests/ls/stat-failed'

[Paul Eggert]

Pádraig Brady wrote:
On 24/07/15 22:46, Assaf Gordon wrote:
If I understand correctly,
The test creates a symlink to a directory then removes execute permissions:
     mkdir d
     ln -s / d/s
     chmod 600 d
Then tries to dereference it:
      $ ls -Log d
      ls: cannot access d/s: Permission denied
      total 0
      d????????? ? ?            ? s

Another possibility might be that the chmod(1) and stat(2) are racy
thus allowing the stat() to succeed? If that was the case then
a stat d/s && skip_ ... would avoid the false failure?

Sorry, I don't understand the scenario here.  If the stat succeeds, why would ls 
output '????'?  The '????' means that the stat failed.