Re: A strong argument for a chase? flag for file-info, and a issue which needs to be considered Lassi Kortela 26 Aug 2019 15:28 UTC

> If a directory entry is a symlink that points to a file that doesn't
> exist, file-info as it now stands, as well as with the default of chase?
> being true if it's added back, will signal an error.
>
> What needs some thought is that's a confusing errno and message, "No
> such file or directory", yet the user can "see" it with directory-files
> and open/read/close-directory.
>
> A strong argument for the chase? flag for file-info is that if we don't
> add it back, the code for file-info-symlink? becomes exceptionally
> trivial, the body is just #f because it can never be handed a file-info
> for a symlink itself.

Fully agree with all of that. lstat() is often used for reliable code.
It might even be better for the non-chasing lstat() to be the default
instead of the chasing stat(). I've often wondered about that when
coding in C.