Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 3 Dec 1999 00:18:57 -0700 | From | Richard Gooch <> | Subject | Re: Can't hardlink in different dirs. (BUG#826) |
| |
Peter J. Braam writes: > > Let's just take one step back. > > Al has successfully pointed out that one should not expect too much in > terms of security improvements for my hardlink suggestion. > > Al additionally gave two reasons, totally unrelated to the security > issues, not to implement the link semantics as I suggested: > > - a very valid, but also dogmatic "it's not Unix" > - "don't put policy in the kernel" > > I think I accept his points, and it's probably not a good idea to put it > in the VFS. > > Coda and AFS have directory ACLs and no file acl's. They could do cross > directory hardlinks safely with my proposed change. So we can make this > Coda policy. > > Before doing so, I'd still like to ask once more: is there a problem with > this, ie. with changing LINK for Coda, ie. are there known programs that > can currently work with Coda that will break because we will change the > semantics of LINK. > > It seems very unlikely since every operation that was previously > possible remains possible. Yet, since there are a lot of smart > people listening here, I'd like to ask it again before we stop the > discussion.
I dunno about programmes breaking, but I can definately say that making hardlinks to files in other directories (not owned by the linking user) is a handy feature. Sure, in some (hostile) environments you might want to restrict hard links, but in other environments it's really handy. Symlinks aren't always the answer.
Regards,
Richard.... Permanent: rgooch@atnf.csiro.au Current: rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |