Re^2: Testing if two paths point to the same file.

stat will/may go in an infinite loop (until killed or defended against), unlike lstat, on a symbolic link loop.

Comment on Re^2: Testing if two paths point to the same file.

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Re^3: Testing if two paths point to the same file. by repellent (Priest) on Feb 03, 2009 at 15:39 UTC
Really? On FreeBSD 6.3, Perl v5.8.8: `$ ln -s i_scratch_your_back you_scratch_my_back $ ln -s you_scratch_my_back i_scratch_your_back $ cd you_scratch_my_back cd: too many levels of symbolic links: you_scratch_my_back $ perl -MData::Dumper -e '@s = stat("i_scratch_your_back"); print Dump +er(@s)'; date Tue Feb 3 07:31:40 PST 2009 $` [download] Despite this pathological case, `stat` does not defeat the purpose of the OP which was to find out if two paths pointed to the same (non-symlink) file. `lstat` on the other hand would fail `is_same` if tested with a plain file and its corresponding symlink.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^3: Testing if two paths point to the same file.
by repellent (Priest) on Feb 03, 2009 at 15:39 UTC

$ ln -s i_scratch_your_back you_scratch_my_back
$ ln -s you_scratch_my_back i_scratch_your_back

$ cd you_scratch_my_back 
cd: too many levels of symbolic links: you_scratch_my_back

$ perl -MData::Dumper -e '@s = stat("i_scratch_your_back"); print Dump
+er(@s)'; date
Tue Feb  3 07:31:40 PST 2009
$
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stat

lstat

is_same

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