[Info-vax] Request description of UFS for VMS person

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

John Santos <john.santos at post.harvard.edu> wrote:
 
> Is the ".." entry in a directory that points back to its parent
> a real link or a dummy that's created on the fly by ls and
> the file system when you reference it?  In that case, shouldn't
> any directory with n subdirectories have n+1 (or n+2, if the
> "." entry that points to itself is also real) links to it?

I am not sure.  It may vary between file systems and/or
as a function of time.  The one that I described
was with SunOS 3.x (I think 3.5.)
 
> 1 link to the directory from its parent
> 1 link to itself, maybe (the . entry)
> n links to it from each of its n children (.. entries in each
> of the children.) 
 
> If a directory were hardlinked from multiple directories,
> where would .. point?  Or is that the problem to be avoided?

I do know that the system dies very fast after one is
created.  You might think that it wouldn't be a problem
until one actually tried to use the link.

-- glen