Re: gnu tar 1.19 requires open() with O_DIRECTORY?

[Eric Blake]

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According to John E. Malmberg on 2/18/2008 8:46 PM:
| I have run into a problem: GNU TAR now requires that the open() call
| support O_DIRECTORY.

Tar is using O_DIRECTORY to close a security hole, and not to directly
read the directory contents.  And POSIX requires that a directory be
openable read-only, even though reads on such a fd are allowed to fail.
Gnulib's replacemente <fcntl.h> should detect platforms that lack
O_DIRECTORY, and define it to 0 on those platforms.  The trick now is
figuring out why gnulib's <fcntl.h> didn't work for VMS; it may also be
necessary to provide a replacement open() that can 'support' opening
directories by using opendir under the hood.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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