2.1.76: weird behavior of "ln -sf dir link"

Vladimir Volovich (vvv@vvv.vsu.ru)
17 Jan 1998 12:58:39 +0300


Hello,

I've found a weird behavior of creating a symbolic links to
directories. If the link to directory already exists, then "ln -sf"
will not be able to change the link:

vvv:/tmp/lns-bug# mkdir dir1 dir2
vvv:/tmp/lns-bug# ln -s dir1 link
vvv:/tmp/lns-bug# ls -l
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 17 12:52 dir1/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 17 12:52 dir2/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Jan 17 12:52 link -> dir1/
vvv:/tmp/lns-bug# ln -sf dir2 link
vvv:/tmp/lns-bug# ls -l
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 17 12:52 dir1/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 17 12:52 dir2/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Jan 17 12:52 link -> dir1/
vvv:/tmp/lns-bug# uname -a
Linux vvv 2.1.76 #1 Fri Dec 26 22:58:33 MSK 1997 i586
vvv:/tmp/lns-bug#

Haven't tested this on newer kernels yet. :)

Best regards, -- Vladimir.

-- 
Factorials were someone's attempt to make math LOOK exciting.