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List:       netatalk
Subject:    Re: [Netatalk-admins] problems for symbolic link
From:       Thomas Kaiser <Thomas.Kaiser () phg-online ! de>
Date:       2006-12-21 10:33:36
Message-ID: C1B02190.6050B%Thomas.Kaiser () phg-online ! de
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Alex deVries wrote:

> Here's the text from Netatalk-Manual.txt:
> 
> * Don't use unix symlinks. Just don't. With a symlink a file/directory
>   "exists" twice, something AFP doesn't allow. There's currently no way this
>   can be resolved, as we either end up with two file/dirs having the same id,
>   or a file having two parents. If you still insist on using them, be aware
>   you're heavily violating the specs. You have been warned...
> 
> But... I can't understand why this is true.  With two Macs, I can
> happily create and read symlinks on both sides without any oddness.

There is a difference between real symlinks in a unix server's file system
afpd has to follow and 'Mac OS X internal' symlinks. The latter are just
files of filetype 'slnk', creator code 'rhap' that contain the destination
they point to inside the data fork as text (either relative or absolute)

You will notice the difference when you create a symlink from the mac client
(a small file with the specific metadata and the contents of the datafork
will be created in the server's filesystem) and when you create a symlink at
the server side. The latter causes the trouble since afpd has to deal
'correctly' with a situation that causes the caveats Didier described
before.

Mac OS X style symlinks do not cause this trouble since resolving the path
to the destination happens at the client's VFS layer.

Regards,

Thomas


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