Re: [PATCH] Do _not_ call unlink on a directory

From: Scott Lamb <slamb@slamb.org>
Date: Jul 16, 2007, 21:23 UTC
Message-ID: <469BE1D4.1070408@slamb.org>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.0.999.0707161332280.20061@woody.linux-foundation.org>

Linus Torvalds wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> No, but we don't *want* the "rmdir for directories" part! 
> 
> That's the whole point.
> 
> Calling "remove()" would be *wrong*. We want the *sane* "unlink()" 
> behaviour, where it only removes files, and returns an error for 
> directories.

Of course, but when used immediately after stat() says the path does not refer to a directory, I would prefer SUS remove() (rmdir() for directories) to Solaris unlink() (break_filesystem() on directories).

But Solaris remove() is broken, too, so it's a moot point. The post-patch behavior is good enough - as you said, it won't happen during reasonable usage and the problem's not unique to git.

Best regards, Scott

-- 
Scott Lamb <http://www.slamb.org/>