$ cd /foo/bar ; ln -s . snaretrap

Now watch that code run forever.

Check for symlinks before you recurse. Of course, if several files are hardlinked to each other below /foo/bar/, they will be counted multiple times, which may or may not be desired - likely not. stat files and check if you've seen that combination of device and inode number before. Etc etc etc..

It's only an innocent looking problem.

Makeshifts last the longest.


In reply to Re^2: Getting the size of files and stuff by Aristotle
in thread Getting the size of files and stuff by Anonymous Monk

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