Re: Signing causes to loose hardlinks.

[Jeff Johnson <n3npq nc rr com>]

Dag Wieers wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I guess this may have already been covered by someone else, but if I 
> resign a package that is hardlinked, rpm causes the package to have 
> another inode, loosing all the hardlinks in return.
>
> Could this be fixed in a future version, or is this done on purpose ?
>  

Hmmm, I expect just the opposite, as rpm goes to lengths to reopen the 
original
package with O_TRUNC to preserve the inode in the face of hardlinks.

Here's the line from lib/rpmchecksig.c that does the dirty, O_TRUNC 
still set:

       if (manageFile(&ofd, &trpm, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0))
           goto exit;

The O_TRUNC is painful for those who use symlinks, not hardlinks. 
There's also
the issue of ENOSPC, as the O_TRUNC wipes out the old before the new is 
written,
causing data loss if/when ENOSPC is encountered later on write.

There's no all-round clear win for everyone, but I'll be happy to listen 
to suggestions.

73 de Jeff