how to report bugs to SGI?

[Vernon Schryver]

In article <10051 at pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, ph at miro.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert) writes:
> (the bug: "ln -s" always creates link files with permission 000 on our 4D/70
> running 4D1-3.138 -- not a nice feature)

This is not a bug, but a more than 3 year old historical artifact of
the implementation of symbolic links in what was at the time a SVR0
directory/namei() structure.  The permissions of link itself do not
matter in the SGI EFS, as in the BSD FFS.  The permissions of the ultimate
file or directory are what matter.  One should probably say that the
display of any permissions on the link by ls(1) is a bug, and that the
garbage permissions on a link in a BSD FFS file system are another bug
(in 4.xBSD).

An attempt to change the permissions of the link itself with chmod(1)
or chmod(2) obviously have to do the "wrong" thing.  One might say that is
undesirable, but that is how BSD-style symbolic links are defined.  The
link must be follow-able by everyone, no matter what the permission of
the ultimate file or directory, if any.

Use readlink(2) to get the contents of a symbolic link.

Vernon Schryver
Silicon Graphics