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Article #15Re: SVR2 rm -r bug
From: Doug Gwyn <gwyn>
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1985 20:36
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1985 20:36
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Reports from actual UNIX System V Release 2 sites indicate that the original SVR2 "rm" does not have the particular bug that I reported a few days ago. Sites that have not modified their version of "rm" in an attempt to fix some of its other problems should not worry about this one. Sites that have picked up the "rm -r" fix reported to the net long ago should check for the bug. Known possible rm problems: 1) "rm -r" fails when total number of chars in path reaches 100. 2) "rm -r" fails when directories are deeply nested (20 levels). 3) "rm -r" reads directories directly rather than using directory access library routines. 4) "rm .. other_args" fails to remove other_args. 5) "rm -r", when patched to fix problem # 1, may fail to work in cases like "rm -r foo/bar x". Recent BRL System V emulation distributions fixed problems # 1,2,3 but introduced problem # 5. This has now been fixed, along with # 4. I'm beginning to think that the best way to fix problems in system software is to totally rewrite it.
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!gymble!umcp-cs!seismo!brl-tgr!gwyn From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) Newsgroups: net.bugs.usg Subject: Re: SVR2 rm -r bug Message-ID: <1037@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Wed, 25-Dec-85 15:36:06 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1037 Posted: Wed Dec 25 15:36:06 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 28-Dec-85 00:42:39 EST References: <861@brl-tgr.ARPA> Distribution: net Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 26