Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 4 Jan 2004 20:47:55 -0500 | From | Mark Mielke <> | Subject | st_dev:st_ino (was: Re: udev and devfs - The final word) |
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On Sun, Jan 04, 2004 at 08:43:27PM -0500, Jeremy Maitin-Shepard wrote: > Unfortunately, programs such as tar depend on inode numbers of distinct > files being distinct even when the file is not open over a period of > several minutes/seconds. This is needed to avoid dumping hard links > more than once. Furthermore, there is no efficient way to write > programs such as tar without depending on this capability. Thus, if > st_ino cannot be used reliably for this purpose, it would be useful for > there to be a system call for retrieving a true > unique-within-the-filesystem identifier for the file.
We already have that: st_nlink
I think you mean a system call that would allow you to be certain that two file descriptors refer to the same file. Then, any files with st_nlink >= 2 would have to use the system call to match them up.
mark
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