GNU bug report logs - #28079
find -type l -xtype and recursive symbolic links

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: Poor Yorick <org.gnu.bug-coreutils <at> pooryorick.com>

Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 16:44:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: notabug

Done: Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Report forwarded to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org:
bug#28079; Package coreutils. (Sun, 13 Aug 2017 16:44:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Acknowledgement sent to Poor Yorick <org.gnu.bug-coreutils <at> pooryorick.com>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org. (Sun, 13 Aug 2017 16:44:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Poor Yorick <org.gnu.bug-coreutils <at> pooryorick.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: find -type l -xtype and recursive symbolic links
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 14:06:19 +0300
When a find expression includes both the -type and -xtype options and a
symbolic link that points to itself is encountered (a recursive 
symlink),
find fails with the error message, "Too many levels of symbolic links".

the -L option combined with the -type option also triggers the error:

    find -L . -type l

One reason to use both -type and -xtype is to skip broken symbolic 
links:

    -type l -not -xtype l

It would be useful in this case for a symbolic link that points to 
itself to be
considered broken by failing the "-xtype l" test.  If the bug was
fixed without also making this adjustment, there would be no way to 
exclude
symbolic links that point to themselves.  One alternative would be to 
introduce
a new type specifically for a symbolic link that points to itself.  
Another
alternative would be to introduce some sort of meta option to pass 
information
about the current file to an option.  Maybe it would look like this:

    -meta -lname name


-- 
Yorick




Information forwarded to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org:
bug#28079; Package coreutils. (Mon, 14 Aug 2017 15:56:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #8 received at 28079 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Poor Yorick <org.gnu.bug-coreutils <at> pooryorick.com>, 28079 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#28079: find -type l -xtype and recursive symbolic links
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2017 10:55:39 -0500
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
tag 28079 notabug
thanks

On 08/13/2017 06:06 AM, Poor Yorick wrote:
> When a find expression includes both the -type and -xtype options and a
> symbolic link that points to itself is encountered (a recursive symlink),
> find fails with the error message, "Too many levels of symbolic links".

Thanks for the report; however, you sent it to bug-coreutils, which does
not maintain find; and find does not use coreutils' bug database.  Your
best bet is to report it to findutils:
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils

I'm closing this bug in the coreutils bug database, since we can't
address it here, but good luck, and feel free to followup here with a
link to the bug id that you eventually create in case it helps someone
else viewing the archives.

-- 
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.           +1-919-301-3266
Virtualization:  qemu.org | libvirt.org

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Information forwarded to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org:
bug#28079; Package coreutils. (Sun, 03 Sep 2017 12:37:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #11 received at 28079 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: James Youngman <jay <at> gnu.org>
To: "Dale R. Worley" <worley <at> alum.mit.edu>
Cc: "bug-findutils <at> gnu.org" <bug-findutils <at> gnu.org>,
 Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigbrady.com>
Subject: Re: Fwd: bug#28079: find -type l -xtype and recursive symbolic links
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2017 13:36:44 +0100
-> findutils bug https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?51926




bug closed, send any further explanations to 28079 <at> debbugs.gnu.org and Poor Yorick <org.gnu.bug-coreutils <at> pooryorick.com> Request was from Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Tue, 30 Oct 2018 01:06:03 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Added tag(s) notabug. Request was from Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Tue, 06 Nov 2018 22:53:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

bug archived. Request was from Debbugs Internal Request <help-debbugs <at> gnu.org> to internal_control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Wed, 05 Dec 2018 12:24:05 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

This bug report was last modified 5 years and 115 days ago.

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