Re: failed test for coreutils-5.2.1 rm fail-eperm on parc-sun-solaris2.9

[Paul Eggert]

Bert Fischer <address@hidden> writes:

> After some iterations I had to run `touch /tmp/.aaa; chmod og+w
> /tmp/.aaa' as root and then run the test as a non-priveleged user to
> reproduce the result.

Thanks for checking into this.  With your help I managed to understand
the bug; I now know what you mean by a "non-POSIX system call".

Apparently Solaris follows the SVR4 tradition and lets you remove any
writable file in a sticky directory, whereas Linux, BSD, etc. follow
the BSD tradition, which does not let you remove a file in a sticky
directory merely because the file is writable.  POSIX 1003.1-2004
specifies the BSD behavior but Solaris doesn't claim conformance to
this recent edition of POSIX.

Perhaps the bug will be fixed in Solaris 10?  I think it's supposed to
claim conformance to POSIX 1003.1-2001, and I think that's the same as
POSIX-2004 here.

Anyway, I installed the following coreutils patch.  Can you please try
it on your host?  I was still unable to reproduce the problem on my
Solaris host, perhaps due to my own userid pattern.  Thanks.

2004-09-19  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * tests/rm/fail-eperm: Don't try to remove writable files in a
        sticky /tmp directory, as SVR4-like systems (e.g., Solaris 9) let
        you remove such files.  Problem reported by Bert Fischer in:
        http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2004-09/msg00074.html

Index: tests/rm/fail-eperm
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/eggert/coreutils/cu/tests/rm/fail-eperm,v
retrieving revision 1.14
retrieving revision 1.15
diff -p -u -r1.14 -r1.15
--- tests/rm/fail-eperm 19 Jul 2003 12:00:38 -0000      1.14
+++ tests/rm/fail-eperm 19 Sep 2004 07:11:16 -0000      1.15
@@ -60,7 +60,9 @@ foreach my $dir (@dir_list)
 
            # Skip files owned by self, symlinks, and directories.
            # It's not technically necessary to skip symlinks, but it's simpler.
-           -l $target_file || -o _ || -d _
+           # SVR4-like systems (e.g., Solaris 9) let you unlink files that
+           # you can write, so skip writable files too.
+           -l $target_file || -o _ || -d _ || -w _
              and next;
 
            $found_file = 1;