Debian Bug report logs - #159221
findutils: locate: -e ignores orphaned symlinks

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jeff Sheinberg <jeffsh@localnet.com>

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: findutils: locate: -e ignores orphaned symlinks

Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 16:47:42 -0400

Package: findutils
Version: 4.1.7-2
Severity: normal

Hi,

I often use "locate" with the "-e" option to determine if a
particular file, ie, a directory entry, exists.

If the target file is an orphaned symlink (the object of the
symlink does not exist), then "locate -e" reports that the target
file does not exist.

It seems to me that this behavior defeats the purpose of the "-e"
option, however, I realize that others may argue to the contrary.

So what is needed is an option that specifies whether to follow
symlinks or not.  In accordance with common practice (SUSv3 and
*BSD cp(1) utility), I suggest using the "-P" option to indicate
that the symlink is not to be followed, and using the "-H" and/or
"-L" options to indicate that the symlink is to be followed.

Thanks,
-- 
Jeff Sheinberg


-- System Information
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Kernel Version: Linux l1.bsrd.net 2.4.19-1 #1 Sat Aug 24 17:01:11 EDT 2002 i586 unknown unknown GNU/Linux


Versions of the packages findutils depends on:
ii  libc6          2.2.5-11.1     GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone

--- Begin /etc/cron.daily/find (modified conffile)
#! /bin/sh
if [ -f /etc/updatedb.conf ]; then
  . /etc/updatedb.conf
fi
cd / && updatedb  2>/dev/null

--- End /etc/cron.daily/find

--- Begin /etc/updatedb.conf (modified conffile)
PRUNEFS="NFS nfs afs proc smbfs autofs auto iso9660 ncpfs coda devpts ftpfs"
PRUNEFS=$(echo $PRUNEFS)
export PRUNEFS
PRUNEPATHS=$(/etc/local/defs -v prune_root_paths)
export PRUNEPATHS
NETPATHS=""
export NETPATHS

--- End /etc/updatedb.conf

Message #16 received at 159221-submitter@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@downhill.at.eu.org>

To: 159221-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#159221: findutils: locate: -e ignores orphaned symlinks

Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 19:31:40 +0200

severity 159221 wishlist
forwarded 159221 bug-findutils@gnu.org
thank
On Sun, Sep 01, 2002 at 04:47:42PM -0400, Jeff Sheinberg wrote:
> I often use "locate" with the "-e" option to determine if a
> particular file, ie, a directory entry, exists.
 
> If the target file is an orphaned symlink (the object of the
> symlink does not exist), then "locate -e" reports that the target
> file does not exist.
 
> It seems to me that this behavior defeats the purpose of the "-e"
> option, however, I realize that others may argue to the contrary.
[...]

I was going to agree with you, until I realized that 'locate -e' and
'test -e' show exactly the same behaviour with respect to dangling
symlinks, and I really think they must not behave differently from
each other.

> So what is needed is an option that specifies whether to follow
> symlinks or not.  In accordance with common practice (SUSv3 and
> *BSD cp(1) utility), I suggest using the "-P" option to indicate
> that the symlink is not to be followed, and using the "-H" and/or
> "-L" options to indicate that the symlink is to be followed.

Makes a nice wishlist item. Forwarded to
http://savannah.gnu.org/support/index.php?func=detailsupport&support_id=102277&group_id=61

          cu andreas

Message #23 received at 159221-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org>

To: 159221-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#159221: fixed in findutils 4.2.20-2

Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:32:18 -0400

Source: findutils
Source-Version: 4.2.20-2

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
findutils, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

findutils_4.2.20-2.diff.gz
  to pool/main/f/findutils/findutils_4.2.20-2.diff.gz
findutils_4.2.20-2.dsc
  to pool/main/f/findutils/findutils_4.2.20-2.dsc
findutils_4.2.20-2_i386.deb
  to pool/main/f/findutils/findutils_4.2.20-2_i386.deb



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 159221@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org> (supplier of updated findutils package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.7
Date: Thu,  9 Jun 2005 20:07:37 +0200
Source: findutils
Binary: findutils
Architecture: source i386
Version: 4.2.20-2
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org>
Changed-By: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org>
Description: 
 findutils  - utilities for finding files--find, xargs, and locate
Closes: 5956 31858 67782 102914 111143 111578 159221 162838 169730 175372 176201 185202 185203 192330 202512 219855 244766 246040 254676 256367 260780 261598 262476 286977 295399 300323 300429 300631
Changes: 
 findutils (4.2.20-2) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * Upload to unstable.
 .
 findutils (4.2.20-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * [locate] Do not index cifs (Closes: #295399) lustre (Closes: #300323) and
     nfs4 (Closes: #300631) filesystems by default.
   * [locate] Ignore /media by default. (Closes: #300429)
   * New upstream version 4.2.20
     - includes up-to-date Italian translation. (Closes: #286977)
 .
 findutils (4.2.14-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - includes patch to fix savannah #11495.
     - locate: New options  -L, --follow|-P, -H, --nofollow for ignoring
       dangling symlinks (or not). (Closes: #159221)
     - find supports -exec ... {} +.
     - locate support for FreeBSD options (Sclms, m and s are ignored, but
       undocumented, I've already opened upstream report #11730 on that.)
       (Closes: #102914)
     - find built with --enable-d_type-optimisation, for using
       readdir/getdents. (Closes: #202512)
 .
 findutils (4.2.11-2) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * find -printf '%n' (hard link count) was broken (savannah #11495).
 .
 findutils (4.2.11-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version.
 .
 findutils (4.2.10.CVS20041219-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream, CVS from CVS20041219 (pre- 4.2.11).
     * -printf '%P' works correctly again.
   * Run testsuite.
 .
 findutils (4.2.9-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream source
 .
 findutils (4.2.8-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - New option --arg-file=file and extended documentation about
       stdin-handling (short in manpage, more extensive in info).
       (Closes: #5956)
     - improved behavior on automounted directories.
 .
 findutils (4.2.5-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - includes 25_destdir_localstatedir.dpatch, our last remaining patch, we
       are vanilla now.
   * Add minimal debian/README.source.
   * Chuan-kai Lin <cklin@debian.org> has offered to serve as backup
     maintainer. Thanks. Add him to Uploaders.
 .
 findutils (4.2.4-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - Closes: #175372: findutils: man pages have L's on references
     - includes 10_updatedb-findopts patch.
     - does not print warning about listing options after non-options unless
       connected to a tty.
     - xargs now uses 128Kb instead of 20Kb of command line by default, as
       ARG_MAX is 131072 on linux this Closes: #261598.
 .
 findutils (4.2.3.CVS20041106-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version (pre-4.2.4, CVS 2004-11-06).
     - Closes: #176201: findutils: xargs enviroment size limited to 20k
     - Closes: #254676: xargs: environment is too large for exec
     - Closes: #219855: -printf: accepts C octal escapes, contrary to the
       documentation.
     - Closes: #246040: findutils: find -printf %H segfaults
     - Closes: #185202: findutils: extra ")" not caught
     - Closes: #185203: findutils: overflow causes -mtime to succeed
     - Closes: #244766: /usr/bin/locate: locate should have equivalent of
       -print0 option
     - documents type of supported regular expressions for -regex
       (Closes: #162838)
     - Closes: #256367: Deprecated usage of trap in locate/updatedb.sh
     - includes some examples in find.1 manpage. (Closes: #111578)
     - new option -ignore_readdir_race to selectively suppress the obnoxious
       race-condition caused errormessages. (Closes: #67782)
     - -print0/-0 issues explained in more detail. (Closes: #111143)
     - includes supplied patch for GNU/FreeBSD. (Closes: #192330)
     - updatedb invokes "cd /" before running commands as unprivileged user.
       (Closes: #262476)
     - 'xargs -n 1 -i' works. (Closes: #31858). Please note that it is no bug
       that -i changes xargs to pass a whole line of input as a single argument
       instead of splitting on any blank characters as without -i. - Other
       implementations behave the same and the -I XSI extension documented in
       SUSv3/POSIX works like this, too.
 .
    * Removed unnecessary patches: 10_missing_includes 20_missing_newlines
      30_locate_nologinsh 35_updatedb-location 36_savannah-8623 40_direntry
      50_install_info
   * Add shfs to PRUNFS (Closes: #260780)
   * New patch: 10_updatedb-findopts: Add --findoptions option to updatedb to
     pass global options to find.
   * Set FINDOPTIONS='-ignore_readdir_race' for updatedb.sh's cron-job.
     (Closes: #169730)
   * standards-version 3.6.1 (no changes required).
Files: 
 d8131ceadf2d1c15b52622c533021e9f 663 base required findutils_4.2.20-2.dsc
 3be936480966e5d4c165047efe0f0b4b 12033 base required findutils_4.2.20-2.diff.gz
 652a8b1a819cacd6fff1cc0033a11032 306194 base required findutils_4.2.20-2_i386.deb

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