Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 13:03:54 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
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To: Turo Lamminen <turo DOT lamminen AT pp DOT inet DOT fi>
cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Bug in Fileutils 3.16?
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On Sun, 30 Jan 2000, Turo Lamminen wrote:

> ln -s dummy.txt dummy2.txt
> 
> It creates dummy2.txt.exe instead of dummy2.txt

This is how it's supposed to work, because the ``symlink'' should still 
work if someone replaces dummy.txt with an executable program after
creating the ``symlink''.

The .exe extension is appended because stock DOS/Windows shells refuse to 
run a program unless it has such an extension.

> Isn't this a bug?

No, it's actually a feature.  But it is not supposed to be used with text 
(or otherwise non-executable) files.  If you use it with programs, this 
behavior should make a lot of sense, especially when Unix Makefile's or
shell scripts call "ln -s".