Re: [MiNT] symlinks and hostfs

[Petr Stehlik <pstehlik@sophics.cz>]

Frank Naumann píše v So 29. 08. 2009 v 09:25 +0200:

> The kernel itself is responsible to handle symlinks, not the xfs.
> 
> The xfs interface getxattr/stat64 shall always return the attributes of 
> the object, whatever it is (a symlink object have mode S_IFLNK).
> 
> To support symlinks the xfs have to provide symlink (create a 
> symlink) and readlink (get the target the symlink point to).

Standa was probably (just guessing) trying to work around the problem
that if there is a host symlink pointing outside of mapped paths and
this symlink would be returned to guest with S_IFLNK then the potential
subsequent readlink couldn't return anything. So Standa probably thought
that it would be more useful to return that symlink as a real file so
it's at least readable/writable by the guest.

We may try to discard all this emulation and basically invalidate host
symlinks pointing outside of mapped paths but it would be good to think
first and figure out if the end result would be better than what we have
now.

> I don't think that the times are the reason. If the xfs get localtime it 
> can easily convert it to UTC. Just take a look into the ext2 xfs.

Standa was mentioning EXT3 xfs. Pity he's not around to answer you
directly as he knows these things while I'm just guessing or trying to
recall what he told about that last time we discussed it. I know I could
just "Use the Source" to find the real answer but hey it's open source
so anybody can do that. And those that are more familiar with MiNT FS
internals could even find the answer faster than me.

Petr