bug#46397: 27.1; Cannot delete buffer pointing to a file in a path that includes a file

[Matt Armstrong]

Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> writes:

> On 3/6/21 1:36 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> I'm asking what is the difference, from the file-locking POV, between
>> an inaccessible directory and a directory that doesn't exist?
>
> In the former (EACCES) case, it's possible that the lockfile exists but 
> Emacs cannot remove it because the user currently lacks permissions to 
> an ancestor directory; this serious problem is worth reporting to the user.
>
> In the latter (ENOTDIR) case the lockfile cannot possibly exist, and 
> Emacs can treat ENOTDIR differently from EACCES for that reason. It 
> makes sense for Emacs to treat ENOTDIR like ENOENT, since in both cases 
> the lockfile cannot possibly exist and these are the only two error 
> numbers with that property.
>
> It might also make sense to treat ENOTDIR specially (neither like EACCES 
> nor like ENOENT) but that's a discussion we haven't had yet, as far as I 
> know.
>
> We've spent more time on this ENOENT/ENOTDIR issue than it's worth, so 
> feel free to revert my change and install whatever other change you 
> like. I'm sure there are lots of ways to fix the underlying problem.

Okay, I'll work on that route, thanks Paul.