Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rlgvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!rlgvax!guy From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: net.unix Subject: Re: Problem with patch and infinit directories Message-ID: <366@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 17-Jan-85 23:43:53 EST Article-I.D.: rlgvax.366 Posted: Thu Jan 17 23:43:53 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jan-85 02:33:53 EST References: <7464@brl-tgr.ARPA> <2547@umcp-cs.UUCP> Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA Lines: 16 > > The restriction about linking directories is built into > > the link program. > > Not in 4.2BSD it's not! I think it was in the 4.1 kernel as well. > (I haven't seen any other kernel sources, so I wouldn't know about > V6/V7/Sn.) All UNIX systems since V6 (and probably some before, although I think some VERY early versions - like the assembly-language ones) have only allowed the super-user to make links to directories. On the other hand, the original poster asked how "root" could create a directory which referenced itself without writing directly to the file system; since it was "root", there were no restrictions on the "link" call for them. Guy Harris {seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy