From nobody@FreeBSD.org  Wed Feb 28 10:03:37 2001
Return-Path: <nobody@FreeBSD.org>
Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.freebsd.org [216.136.204.21])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 420AD37B71D
	for <freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org>; Wed, 28 Feb 2001 10:03:36 -0800 (PST)
	(envelope-from nobody@FreeBSD.org)
Received: (from nobody@localhost)
	by freefall.freebsd.org (8.11.1/8.11.1) id f1SI3aq86648;
	Wed, 28 Feb 2001 10:03:36 -0800 (PST)
	(envelope-from nobody)
Message-Id: <200102281803.f1SI3aq86648@freefall.freebsd.org>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 10:03:36 -0800 (PST)
From: cwible@cwible.com
To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Directory/INODE Editing
X-Send-Pr-Version: www-1.0

>Number:         25460
>Category:       misc
>Synopsis:       Directory/INODE Editing
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          closed
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:  
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Wed Feb 28 10:10:01 PST 2001
>Closed-Date:    Sun Mar 11 16:04:19 PST 2001
>Last-Modified:  Sun Mar 11 16:05:45 PST 2001
>Originator:     Cullin Wible
>Release:        4.2-STABLE
>Organization:
>Environment:
FreeBSD xsadev.nyc.cwible.com 4.2-STABLE FreeBSD 4.2-STABLE #0: Sun Feb  4 23:09:14 GMT 2001     root@xsadev.nyc.cwible.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/VQVPN  i386
>Description:
There appears to be a general problem in FreeBSD with access to INODE's though editors and miscallaenous command line programs. For example, you can edit an INODE directly by typing "vi /etc", which will not work on most other UN*X OS's. Some programs such as edit, more and less do alert you that it is a directory, but many programs such vi, joe and cat do not. I am not quite sure why this is, or even if it is a bug, but it has caused some interesting problems such as the one described below.

If you are going to install a new kernel and decide to move your old modules directory out of the way first, when you perform a "make install" you will see that a new modules directory is not made; instead all of the modules are appended to a file called /modules. However, if you perform a mkdir manually first, it works. In other words, some portion of the "make install" is not checking for a directory and simply starts appending to a file instead. If you don't understand, try my steps about how to repeat the problem.
>How-To-Repeat:
vi /etc

--- or ---

cd /usr/src/sys/compile/kernel_name
rm -rf /modules
make install
less /modules

>Fix:

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
State-Changed-From-To: open->closed 
State-Changed-By: kris 
State-Changed-When: Sun Mar 11 16:04:19 PST 2001 
State-Changed-Why:  
Don't do that then.  /modules is created by the mtree stuff 
in make world, which is the correct place for it. 

This incidentally doesn't have anything to do with the first 
half of your PR where you talk about being able to write to 
directory files 

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=25460 
>Unformatted:
