Any known problems with SYMLINKS ?

[Robert Gezelter]

Craig,

My comment about the patch was meant to be very limited, and tied to the previous comment that the VERIFY could be run on 8.3 to set the bits and nothing else.

Admittedly using the comments made in the thread as a basis, it would seem that the bit setting is highly localized. Thus, I am not suggesting "the whole 8.4 symlink" implementation. I am only suggesting two images: the routine used to create a symlink with both bits and the VERIFY.EXE image from 8.4.

Rest assured. If there was a large modification to 8.3, I would not even raise the possibility.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[Robert Gezelter]

Craig,

A small further clarification on my last clarification.

The "patch" kit that I am proposing is not a mandatory patch, it is an elective patch kit for those who need to maintain 7x24x366 availability.

The problem with upgrading to 8.4 and running the ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE is that any applications using symlinks may be challenged until the ANALYZE completes. With the hypothetical patch kit, the ANALYZE could be run on a background basis (according to Murali, there is no qualification issue with using an upgraded volume with an 8.3 system; the problem is the reverse).

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[P Muralidhar Kini]

Craig,
>> Hmm. What about on v8.3? I don't have v8.4 handy at the moment.
>> It's possible it's been fixed, though it's also possible you have
>> to unmount and remount the volume after setting /NOWRITETHROUGH.
Even on V83 system, i was not able to reproduce the problem.
The attached file has test results.

Robert,
>> The problem with upgrading to 8.4 and running the ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE
>> is that any applications using symlinks may be challenged until the
>> ANALYZE completes
Yes, thats a good point.
With larger disk sizes, the time taken by the ANAL/DISK to complete its work
would be longer. Hence customers don't tend to run this during production
hours but instead would wait till any maintainence window becomes available
to perform such tasks.

>> (according to Murali, there is no qualification issue with using
>> an upgraded volume with an 8.3 system; the problem is the reverse).
Yes, thats correct.

I have also made a note about the problem mentioned in
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Languages-and-Scripting/Unexpected-ODS5-wildcard-file-spec-result/m-p/4531916#M6938

Regards,
Murali

[Craig A Berry]

Murali wrote:
>>>
Craig,
>> Hmm. What about on v8.3? I don't have v8.4 handy at the moment.
>> It's possible it's been fixed, though it's also possible you have
>> to unmount and remount the volume after setting /NOWRITETHROUGH.
Even on V83 system, i was not able to reproduce the problem.
The attached file has test results.
>>>

Murali, thanks for trying. I see you are testing on a SCSI disk. I can reproduce it 100% of the time on a SAN volume, but not on an LDDriver volume. Makes me wonder if it's a timing problem encountered only on faster storage and the volume characteristics were a red herring.