From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stefan Monnier" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Tramp: how to handle make-symbolic-link? Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 09:56:59 -0400 Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: <200206261357.g5QDv0X11882@rum.cs.yale.edu> References: <200206241939.g5OJdRF26200@aztec.santafe.edu> <200206242012.g5OKCV904075@rum.cs.yale.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1025099833 26488 127.0.0.1 (26 Jun 2002 13:57:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 13:57:13 +0000 (UTC) Cc: monnier+gnu/emacs@rum.cs.yale.edu, Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE, emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 17NDIH-0006t7-00 for ; Wed, 26 Jun 2002 15:57:13 +0200 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 17NDKP-0001QF-00 for ; Wed, 26 Jun 2002 15:59:25 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 17NDIJ-0007vu-00; Wed, 26 Jun 2002 09:57:15 -0400 Original-Received: from rum.cs.yale.edu ([128.36.229.169]) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 17NDI4-0007uu-00; Wed, 26 Jun 2002 09:57:00 -0400 Original-Received: (from monnier@localhost) by rum.cs.yale.edu (8.11.6/8.11.6) id g5QDv0X11882; Wed, 26 Jun 2002 09:57:00 -0400 X-Mailer: exmh version 2.4 06/23/2000 with nmh-1.0.4 Original-To: Richard Stallman Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:5214 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:5214 > > Assuming that symlinks in the remote file system can only point to > > that same remote file system, the former request is possible, and the > > latter should get an error because there is no way to make a link to > > the local machine's disk. > > make-symbolic-link should not prevent you from creating to a link > to a file that doesn't exist. Especially since you can pretty much > never tell whether the file will ever exist or not. > > I agree, but that is not the issue here. Either way, it will be > possible to make links to files that don't exist. The issue is about > links that would appear to point to another machine. Symbolic links > are interpreted by the OS, and it does not understand Emacs remote > file names. So a link can only point to a file on the same machine. > > In Emacs, that link target is a remote file name. It always points > to a remote file. > > It seems that the consistent scheme is that you specify the link target > using a remote file on the same remote machine, and the mechanism > to create the link deletes the remote prefix before really creating > the link. I was not arguing about the rewrite when the target is /sameuser@samehost:/destina/tion an error because there is no way to make a link to the local machine's disk". I don't like the rewriting, but I can live with it. OTOH, raising an error just because Emacs thinks the operation doesn't make any sense would just be wrong. Especially since it's not trivial for elisp code to transform "/destina/tion" into "/sameuser@samehost:/destina/tion". Stefan