Mike Jackson wrote: > Mark A. Schwenk wrote: > >> >> For example copying /etc/named.conf to /etc/named.conf.bak before >> modifying it and then afterward discovering that /etc/named.conf and >> /etc/named.conf.bak are now both symbolic links to the same changed >> copy of the real file in /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf. > > > Which filesystem are you using? > > Ext3: > > # echo foobar > 1 > # ln -s 1 2 > # cp 2 3 > # ls -al > -rw-r--r-- 1 jacksonm users 7 Jul 17 22:17 1 > lrwxrwxrwx 1 jacksonm users 10 Jul 17 22:18 2 -> 1 > -rw-r--r-- 1 jacksonm users 7 Jul 17 22:18 3 > > Ext3. Right you are. I was trying to quickly provide an example of how the symbolic links can bite back and didn't think through it clearly. How about this: # mv /etc/named.conf /etc/named.conf.bak # cp /etc/named.conf.bak /etc/named.conf At this point /etc/named.conf.bak is a symbolic link to /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf and /etc/named.conf is a regular file. Then editing the /etc/named.conf file no longer modifies the real source file at /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf. -Mark Schwenk
