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Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 22:06:18 -0700
To: "John William" <jw2357 AT hotmail DOT com>, cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
From: Randall R Schulz <rrschulz AT cris DOT com>
Subject: Re: 1.3.2 rmdir fails if CWD is in the directory to be deleted?
In-Reply-To: <F146hlbgwCpsCXsCLMy0000ad06@hotmail.com>
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John,

I'm not sure I'd call it an "issue" since I don't think it's likely ever to 
be "resolved."

This reflects a restriction imposed by Windows that no file system entity 
that is in use (open file, program being executed, directory that is a 
current working directory, etc.) can be deleted.

Unix can accomplish this sort of thing (deletion of in-use file system 
entities) because of the strong distinction and separation between the name 
of a thing (a directory entry) and the thing itself (an inode, whether 
internal or on disk). "Real" Unix systems use internal reference counting 
(multiple levels of it, in fact) to defer actions like the removal of a 
file or directory (inode) independent of the removal of the entity's last 
referencing directory entry (which is the direct consequence of an unlink 
or rmdir call).

Simulating this in Cygwin would presumably require herculean hoop-jumping 
and major slight-of-hand and I tend to doubt the principals would consider 
it worth the effort.

In short, "Cygwin is not Unix" and this is one place where the distinction 
is manifest as a difference in operation.

Randall Schulz
Mountain View, CA USA


At 21:45 2001-09-07, John William wrote:
>I just installed Cygwin and am having the following problem with rmdir() 
>-- it fails if the CWD is set to the directory to be deleted.
>
>main()
>{
>  mkdir("test");
>  rmdir("test"); <-- succeeds
>
>  mkdir("test");
>  chdir("test");
>  rmdir("test"); <-- fails
>}
>
>This is different than standard UN*X. It appears to me that POSIX only 
>requires that the directory be empty, it doesn't say that the CWD can't be 
>set to the directory to be deleted.
>
>Is this a known issue? It is causing problems with some programs I'm 
>trying to compile (they work fine under RH Linux, DJGPP and FreeBSD). 
>Please e-mail any reponses, as I am not subscribed to the mailing list. Thanks!
>
>- John


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