Re: [RFC] File flags handling - proposal for API.

Jamie Lokier (lkd@tantalophile.demon.co.uk)
Mon, 5 Jul 1999 16:41:27 +0200

Simon Richter wrote:
> Well, you open a directory, then fstat() it. Either fstat() returns the
> data on the directory, which will make it difficult to "tail -f" the file
> - - - You cannot use stat/lstat because the file may have been removed since,
> or it returns the data on the file, which will break all old programs.

Which old programs will break if fstat() returns the length of the
default file? (I can't think of any).

Which programs will break if fstat() returns S_ISREG when there's a
default file? (Should be ok -- there's a file there after all).

Note that flexibility can be retained by opening "albod/" (trailing
slash) to force interpretation as a directory.

-- Jamie

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