Mailing List Archive

Greetings to Pythonistas, Pythoniandos and Python Hackers
everywhere!


I have written some Python scripts for my own amusement, and
I'm stymied by a "bug" involving traversing symlinked
directories in a Linux ext2 filesystem.


I'm offering 40.00 USD for a patch to my code that makes my
"scoot()" function do what I want it to, like this:


------- begin imaginary bash transcript
bash$ cd /tmp
bash$ mkdir dirOne
bash$ mkdir dirTwo
bash$ mkdir dirTwo/dirThree
bash$ ln -s dirTwo/dirThree .
bash$ cd dirThree
bash$ echo "hi there" > file.txt
bash$ scoot.py file.txt ../dirOne
bash$ cd /tmp
bash$ cd dirOne
bash$ ls -al
total 3
drwx------ 2 zooko zooko 1024 Jun 8 01:10 .
drwx------ 4 zooko zooko 1024 Jun 8 01:07 ..
-rw------- 1 zooko zooko 9 Jun 8 01:09 file.txt
bash$ cd /tmp/dirThree
bash$ ls -al
total 2
drwx------ 2 zooko zooko 1024 Jun 8 01:10 .
drwx------ 3 zooko zooko 1024 Jun 8 01:07 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 zooko zooko 21 Jun 8 01:10 file.txt -> ../../dirOne/file.txt
bash$ cat file.txt
hi there
bash$
------- end imaginary bash transcript


Currently, it does this:


------- begin actual bash transcript
bash$ cd /tmp
bash$ mkdir dirOne
bash$ mkdir dirTwo
bash$ mkdir dirTwo/dirThree
bash$ ln -s dirTwo/dirThree .
bash$ cd dirThree
bash$ echo "hi there" > file.txt
bash$ scoot.py file.txt ../dirOne
/bin/mv: cannot create regular file `../dirOne/file.txt': No such file or directory
bash$ cd /tmp
bash$ cd dirOne
bash$ ls -al
total 5
drwx------ 2 zooko zooko 1024 Jun 8 01:12 .
drwxrwxrwt 12 root root 4096 Jun 8 01:12 ..
bash$ cd /tmp/dirThree
bash$ ls -al
total 3
drwx------ 2 zooko zooko 1024 Jun 8 01:12 .
drwx------ 3 zooko zooko 1024 Jun 8 01:12 ..
-rw------- 1 zooko zooko 9 Jun 8 01:12 file.txt
bash$ cat file.txt
hi there
bash$
------- end actual bash transcript


The code for "scoot.py" and the related functions in "zutil.py"
is available at
"http://wildgoose.tandu.com/~zooko/PythonHacking/".



I have $40.00 worth of e-gold ("http://e-gold.com/") which
I'll give to the author of the best, most elegant, solution
(IMO, of course).


If you create an e-gold account (takes less than 5 minutes)
then I can transfer the money to you in instantaneous digital
form, or if you prefer I'll have e-gold.com debit my account
and cut you a snail mail check.


I'll keep the newsgroup posted of what kind of response I get
to this offer.


:-)


Regards,

Zooko

-------
"Must it be assumed that because we are engineers beauty is not
our concern, and that while we make our constructions robust
and durable we do not also strive to make them elegant?"
-- Gustave Eiffel