bug#80508: coreutils ln creates bad symbolic link
Glenn <[email protected]> Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:58:32 -0500
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.gnu.core-utils.bugs |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
coreutils "ln" created bad symbolic link when I believe it should have failed , because the symbolic link being created already existed. Created a directory "AA" Created symbolic link "aa" to directory "./AA" Created directory "BB" Created symbolic link to "aa" to "./BB", without first deleting the original symbolic link "aa". Symbolic link creation of "aa" should fail on line 43 of test (ln -s ./BB aa), because symbolic link "aa" already exists. No error was reported and it created a bad symbolic link, inside directory "AA" as "BB" to "./BB" ( see line 53 of test), Symbolic link "aa" to directory "AA" remained. glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> ln --version ln (GNU coreutils) 9.6 Copyright (C) 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie. -------------- test follows glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> ls -lR .: total 0 glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> mkdir AA glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> ls -lR .: total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 glenn glenn 6 Feb 27 16:13 AA ./AA: total 0 glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> ln -s ./AA aa glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> ls -lR .: total 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 glenn glenn 4 Feb 27 16:13 aa -> ./AA drwxr-xr-x 2 glenn glenn 6 Feb 27 16:13 AA ./AA: total 0 glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> mkdir BB glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> ls -lR .: total 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 glenn glenn 4 Feb 27 16:13 aa -> ./AA drwxr-xr-x 2 glenn glenn 6 Feb 27 16:13 AA drwxr-xr-x 2 glenn glenn 6 Feb 27 16:14 BB ./AA: total 0 ./BB: total 0 glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> *ln -s ./BB aa* glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> ls -lR .: total 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 glenn glenn 4 Feb 27 16:13 aa -> ./AA drwxr-xr-x 2 glenn glenn 16 Feb 27 16:14 AA drwxr-xr-x 2 glenn glenn 6 Feb 27 16:14 BB ./AA: total 0 *lrwxrwxrwx 1 glenn glenn 4 Feb 27 16:14 BB -> ./BB* ./BB: total 0 glenn@cottage:~/ZZ> Thanks Glenn.