On Wed 17 Jan 2024 at 15:02:05 (+0100), hw wrote: > On Wed, 2024-01-17 at 07:26 -0500, Greg Wooledge wrote: > > On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 11:19:50AM +0100, hw wrote: > > > On Tue, 2024-01-16 at 08:41 -0500, Greg Wooledge wrote: > > > > On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 02:17:05PM +0100, hw wrote: > > > > > On Tue, 2024-01-16 at 08:03 -0500, Greg Wooledge wrote: > > > > > > On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 01:43:23PM +0100, hw wrote: > > > > > > > There's only a bunch of links in that directory, apparently all > > > > > > > pointing to files that don't exist. Don't you have that? > > > > > > > > > > > > unicorn:~$ ls -l /run/user/1000/systemd/units > > > > > > total 0 > > > > > > lrwxrwxrwx 1 greg greg 32 Jan 4 10:33 > > > > > > invocation:at-spi-dbus-bus.service -> > > > > > > bfec6466520a4586b8c9205c235ccc92 > > > > > > You can access it just fine. You just don't *understand* it. (Neither > > > > do I.) > > > > > > If I could access it, I could display the file. If there is no file, > > > then these directory entries shouldn't exist. > > > > I don't know how to make it any clearer. THE SYMBOLIC LINK TARGET IS > > THE CONTENT. They are storing this "Invocation ID" inside the symbolic > > link itself. > > > > This is what they chose to do. I don't know WHY. But you can clearly > > see what they're doing. > > I can only see links to files that don't exist.
Perhaps a more understandable example would help. If you edit some file with emacs, and make some change in the buffer, take a look at the directory the file is in, and you'll see something like: $ ls -al foo total 28 drwxr-x--- 2 4096 Jan 17 22:56 . lrwxrwxrwx 1 27 Jan 17 22:56 .#connectivity -> auser@ahost.26418:1705500887 drwxrwxrwt 17 20480 Jan 17 22:55 .. -rw------- 1 793 Apr 26 2017 connectivity $ If someone else tries to edit the same file and make an alteration, emacs will prompt them with a query, and they can back off, or carry on editing, or "steal" the file (swapping roles, so the original editor becomes the intruder). That process is enabled by the lock file, a dangling symlink, which enables emacs to inform the second person who and where the first person is, and their process's PID. In this case, the data in the symlink is easily recognised: u...@host.pid:seconds, where seconds is likely the host's boot time. > Unknown things never seen before are always alarming. Nonsense. Small children would be in a constant state of alarm. Cheers, David.
