ln -f

[Ben Pearre]

ln -f doesn't work on directories, and doesn't return an error
condition!  The (0) on the left of my prompt is the last return
value.  If this isn't supposed to work, shouldn't it at least tell you
so?  Works fine on files...

(0)address@hidden/hi% mkdir foo1
(0)address@hidden/hi% ln -s foo1 foo
(0)address@hidden/hi% mkdir foo2
(0)address@hidden/hi% ln -s foo2 foo    # This shouldn't work, but silently???
(0)address@hidden/hi% ll
total 28
drwxr-xr-x    4 ben      ben          4096 Dec 11 12:42 ./
drwxr-xr-x  110 ben      ben         16384 Dec 11 12:40 ../
lrwxrwxrwx    1 ben      ben             4 Dec 11 12:41 foo -> foo1/
drwxr-xr-x    2 ben      ben          4096 Dec 11 12:42 foo1/
drwxr-xr-x    2 ben      ben          4096 Dec 11 12:42 foo2/
(0)address@hidden/hi% ln -sf foo2 foo # No error, no warning, no work. :(
(0)address@hidden/hi% ll
total 28
drwxr-xr-x    4 ben      ben          4096 Dec 11 12:42 ./
drwxr-xr-x  110 ben      ben         16384 Dec 11 12:40 ../
lrwxrwxrwx    1 ben      ben             4 Dec 11 12:41 foo -> foo1/
drwxr-xr-x    2 ben      ben          4096 Dec 11 12:42 foo1/
drwxr-xr-x    2 ben      ben          4096 Dec 11 12:42 foo2/
(0)address@hidden/hi% ln --version
ln (fileutils) 4.1
Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie.

Copyright (C) 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There
is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.

(0)address@hidden/hi% uname -a
Linux diverge.seunglab.mit.edu 2.4.9 #3 Mon Nov 26 17:57:50 EST 2001
(0)i686 unknown

Cheers!  Nice work on lots of stuff.  I couldn't live without y'all :)
-Ben

-- 
address@hidden                http://hebb.mit.edu/~ben