On Tue, 19 Sep 2000 07:51:29 GMT, [log in to unmask] wrote:

...
>>
>- create a symbolic link to any other file on the file system in your
>current directory
>- create a file, <file>, using vi (or whatever) named something
>different in the current directory as well
>- run perl -e 'rename("<file>","<symlink>");'

While not a solution to your problem, ALL system calls should really
be checked for success. If you had done something like:

perl -e 'rename("<file>","<symlink>") or die $!;'
System call error at -e line 1.

you'd at least gotten an error indicating something had gone wrong,
i.s.o. silence (and seemingly succes).

...
>>
>The operation should accomplish nothing.  Doing the same on another
>system like AIX will trash the link and overwrite the symlink with the
>file.

The same operation with the "mv" command with the posix shell gives
the same result, failure. The problem lies with MPE/POSIX, not perl.
Guess it's time to place a call to HP.

HTH
Danny A. van Delft   [log in to unmask]