[ale] Quick LInux Quiz

[Geoffrey]

Mike Murphy wrote:
> the CHANGES included with the source says:
> 
> "Pathname canonicalization now leaves a leading `//' intact, as POSIX.1 
> requires."
> 
> That's in the release notes for bash-2.01-release.
> 
> So it seems this was on purpose. In notes for newer releases there are 
> number of allusions to adjustments to // behavior, so it seems that 
> maybe this hasn't been a happy feature, but I think its definately a 
> feature.
> 
> Looking harder, at the BASH FAQ this time, I see:
> 
> E10) Why does `cd //' leave $PWD as `//'?
> 
> POSIX.2, in its description of `cd', says that *three* or more leading
> slashes may be replaced with a single slash when canonicalizing the
> current working directory.
> 
> This is, I presume, for historical compatibility.  Certain versions of
> Unix, and early network file systems, used paths of the form
> //hostname/path to access `path' on server `hostname'.

I've been around various flavors of Unix and various esoteric Unix 
networks since 1985 and I've never seen any of them that had such an 
approach.  Care to elaborate?


-- 
Until later, Geoffrey                     Registered Linux User #108567
Building secure systems inspite of Microsoft