[bug #54745] -mount needs to be slightly different from -xdev

[Eric Blake]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54745>

                 Summary: -mount needs to be slightly different from -xdev
                 Project: findutils
            Submitted by: ericb
            Submitted on: Thu 27 Sep 2018 09:31:35 AM MDT
                Category: None
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: None
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: 
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: None
           Fixed Release: None

    _______________________________________________________

Details:

Today during the Austin Group meeting (the folks responsible for POSIX), it
was decided that -mount and -xdev should have a subtle difference in behavior,
in order to reconcile some differences between implementations and against
some other file-traversal programs like pax (the POSIX replacement to tar).
The difference stems on the question of whether, when requesting that a
cross-device file system entry (whether a mount point, or whether a symlink
that crosses mount points when -L follows symlinks), should be visited or
omitted during the traversal.  Both styles have their merits.  Quoting from
the discussion results:

http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1133
"
    When restricting the search to files on one file system, it can sometimes
be desirable for the crossing points themselves to be acted on and sometimes
for them not to be acted on. (Crossing points are mount points and, if the -L
option is specified, symbolic links to directories on other file systems.) The
-xdev primary acts on them and the -mount primary does not. However, -mount
also does not act on symbolic links to non-directory files on other file
systems (if -L is specified). If there is a need for an application to exclude
crossing points but include symbolic links to non-directory files on other
file systems, this can be achieved by using two find commands as follows:

        find -L dir -mount -type d -print
        find -L dir -xdev ! -type d -print

    (in a subshell whose output is piped to sort, if the order matters).

    If both -mount and -xdev are specified, find obeys both primaries but the
end result is the same as if -xdev were not specified.
"

We'll need to patch GNU findutils to match, in order to make -mount skip
crossing points (while keeping -xdev with its behavior of visiting crossing
points).





    _______________________________________________________

Reply to this item at:

  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54745>

_______________________________________________
  Message sent via Savannah
  https://savannah.gnu.org/