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From: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.sources.bugs,net.unix
Subject: Re: Problem with patch and infinit directories
Message-ID: <34@spar.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 04:22:04 EST
Article-I.D.: spar.34
Posted: Tue Jan 15 04:22:04 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jan-85 21:26:29 EST
References: <792@enea.UUCP> <795@enea.UUCP> <4883@utzoo.UUCP> <1299@utah-gr.UUCP>
Reply-To: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
Lines: 28
Xref: watmath net.sources.bugs:183 net.unix:3328

From Spencer Thomas:

>In article <4883@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>> It turned out that I didn't create an infinit number of subdirectories
>>> but rather a directory linked to itself, that is in directory A I have
>>> directory B which is a symbolic link to A. As soon as I create a file
>>> in A it will appear in B and B/B and B/B/B ...
>>
>>Aren't symbolic links delightful?
>
>I doubt very much it was a symbolic link - he said it showed up in the
>'ls' listing as a real directory.  Also, you can easily remove a
>symbolic link.  I think it was a real link (only possible under 4.2 when
>running as root, and VERY dangerous).

I also accidentally created a HARD link, using patch, that behaved as Henry
Spencer's monster. And it wrought havoc with our nightly filesystem
maintenance -- guess how long a `find' on the partition containing such a
directory will run...

Getting rid of the black hole was NOT fun. Assuming Henry's experience
was related to mine, I wonder how could patch do such an evil thing?
And how can I avoid this in the future, short of removing `patch'?

And just how is it possible for `root' to create such a directory in 4.2
without writing to raw disc?

-michael