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Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:02:16 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Brandon Li (JIRA)" <jira@apache.org>
To: hdfs-issues@hadoop.apache.org
Message-ID: <JIRA.12645104.1367184073132.249964.1367348536770@arcas>
In-Reply-To: <JIRA.12645104.1367184073132@arcas>
References: <JIRA.12645104.1367184073132@arcas>
Subject: [jira] [Commented] (HDFS-4771) Provide a way to set symlink
 attributes
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    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HDFS-4771?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=13645847#comment-13645847 ] 

Brandon Li commented on HDFS-4771:
----------------------------------

{quote}...but I recommend we follow POSIX conventions.{quote}
I think so too.

{quote}Btw HDFS symlinks don't currently support permissions on the links themselves (see HDFS-948).{quote}
Two major problems I found with current symlink implementation.

 1. HDFS assumes the link is inside its own namespace. This is a problem when HDFS is integrated into client's file system namespace.
 2. Suppose the linked target is inside HFDS, HDFS doesn't really check whether the target saved in the link file is a valid path. Even the target was valid, it could become invalid as the namespace changes. 

For example, create a symlink /user/brandon/iamlink.lnk  and it has the content(target) as "/invalid/path". The file /user/brandon/iamlink.lnk can't be deleted since HDFS can't resolve it.

Let me update the JIRA title accordingly.
                
> Provide a way to set symlink attributes
> ---------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: HDFS-4771
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HDFS-4771
>             Project: Hadoop HDFS
>          Issue Type: Bug
>          Components: namenode
>    Affects Versions: 3.0.0
>            Reporter: Brandon Li
>
> Currently HDFS always resolves symlink when setting certain file attributes, such as setPermission and setTime. And thus the client can't set some file attributes of the symlink itself.

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