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Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2011 13:54:49 -0800
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Subject: Re: Please don't resolve native symbolic links in cygwin_conv_path
From: Daniel Colascione <dan.colascione@gmail.com>
To: cygwin@cygwin.com
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On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 7:29 AM, Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com> wrote:
> On 01/06/2011 06:39 PM, Daniel Colascione wrote:
>> If a POSIX path supplied to cygwin_conv_path ends in a symbolic link,
>> the returned path refers to the target of that link. Normally, that's
>> a good thing because native programs can't understand Cygwin links.
>> But this behavior is unwanted when we're looking at a *native*
>> symbolic link that all programs can understand. It's needlessly
>> specific and rather surprising, and is causing trouble with a program
>> I'm writing that manipulates native symbolic links.
>
> Is this something where we should add a new CCP_ flag to
> cygwin_conv_path's what argument that allows the user the choice between
> following or stopping at native symlinks?

I don't see why --- if the caller wants a fully-resolved path, he can
call realpath() on it before converting it. The Cygwin conversion
functions should only resolve paths to the minimum extent required for
interoperability --- the facility is more general and useful that way.

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