Re: coreutils 5.97: Adjust mkdir message (File exists)

[Jim Meyering]

Jari Aalto <address@hidden> wrote:
...
>> Should mkdir have to perform an additional lstat so that
>> it can include the type of the preexisting file system "object"
>> when the mkdir functions fails with EEXIST?
>
> I'd welcome this. When error condition occures, it's a perfect place to
> provide more information. The information is not necessarily displayed
> to user, but stored to a log file, so when person looks at the logs
> later, he can get detailled view of the problem.
...

Adding post-failure code to perform file system operations
in order to give better diagnostics is not something to do lightly.
I've done it for a few cases in coreutils, but only to avoid
particularly misleading diagnostics.

Sorry.  It's not justified in this case.