Re: ls -lF dereferences symbolic links - ?bug or feature?

[Eric J Haywiser]

Paul,
Thank you for your reply.

> Eric J Haywiser <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > Apparently ls -lF classifies the link reference rather than the link
> > itself, while ls -F classfies the link.

On Thu, 12 May 2005, Paul Eggert wrote:

Paul> I don't observe this behavior with coreutils 5.3.0 "ls".
Paul> Perhaps the bug has been fixed since your version?  Please try:
Paul>
Paul> ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.3.0.tar.gz

I have done so, and continue to observe this behavior.
Please see transcript below.

Have I perhaps used incorrect terminology, or otherwise failed to
communicate my observation?  Please advise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
address@hidden ~/coreutils-5.3.0/src/ls --version
ls (GNU coreutils) 5.3.0
Written by Richard Stallman and David MacKenzie.

Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.

address@hidden ~/coreutils-5.3.0/src/ls -l
total 1
-rwxr-xr-x   exe
lrwxrwxrwx   n -> nonexistant
lrwxrwxrwx   x -> exe


address@hidden ~/coreutils-5.3.0/src/ls -lF
total 1
-rwxr-xr-x   exe*
lrwxrwxrwx   n -> nonexistant
lrwxrwxrwx   x -> exe*

address@hidden ls -F
exe*  n@  x@

--------------------------------------------------------------------
I would expect the 2nd command to behave like this:

address@hidden ~/coreutils-5.3.0/src/ls -lF
total 1
-rwxr-xr-x   exe*
lrwxrwxrwx   n@ -> nonexistant
lrwxrwxrwx   x@ -> exe

and then would further expect

address@hidden ~/coreutils-5.3.0/src/ls -lF --dereference
total 1
-rwxr-xr-x   exe*
lrwxrwxrwx   x*
--------------------------------------------------------------------