BSD file system

[Chris Torek]

In article <1344 at accuvax.nwu.edu> rico at dehn. (Rico Tudor) writes:
>	(1) How are permissions set on a symbolic link?

They are completely irrelevant---nothing ever uses them.  (You can view
them with lstat, or `ls -l' [which uses lstat], but the kernel ignores
them entirely.)

>	(2) How are access & modification times set on a symbolic link?

As with the permissions, these are irrelevant (only the ctime matters,
and only for backups).

>	(3) What purpose is served by taking the group ID of a newly
>		created file from the parent directory, rather than the
>		process?

Given that `the process' may be in up to 8 (4.2BSD) or 16 (4.3BSD)
groups simultaneously, there is no single correct choice based on
the process alone, hence the parent directory rule.
-- 
`They were supposed to be green.'
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at cs.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris