IEEE Standards AssociationCopyright © 2006 IEEE. All rights reserved.
Defect Report concerning (number and title of International Standard
or DIS final text, if applicable):
Interpretation Number: 5
Topic: Defect in XSH unlink
Relevant Sections: unlink
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7 Defect Report concerning (number and title of International Standard
or DIS final text, if applicable):
The System Interfaces Volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
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8 Qualifier (e.g. error, omission, clarification required):
3. Clarification required
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9 References in document (e.g. page, clause, figure, and/or table
numbers):
Page: 1555 Line: 47966 Section: unlink
XSH Enhancement Request Number 58
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10 Nature of defect (complete, concise explanation of the perceived
problem):
The unlink() function defines the following error condition
[EPERM] The file named by path is a directory, and either the calling
process does not have appropriate privileges, or the implementation
prohibits using unlink() on directories.
The EISDIR error condition would also seem an appropriate error to
return in the case when unlink() is attempted on a directory.
Is an implementation conforming that returns EISDIR rather
than EPERM ?
A certain body of implementors believe that this is the more natural
error code to expect in this case.
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11 Solution proposed by the submitter (optional):
Proposed interpretation:
The standard is clear on the requirements, however concerns should be
forwarded to the sponsor to consider allowing the EISDIR error.
Proposed rationale:
Applications receiving an error should be able to cope with any
unexpected error code. The EISDIR code would seem a logical return.
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Interpretation response
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The standard clearly states that unlink() on a directory returns
EPERM for this condition,and conforming implementations must conform
to this.
Rationale:
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The standard is clear. Only EPERM is defined for this error.
To make a change would reduce the consensus.
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