Re: [PATCH] ls: issue error message on removed directory

[Pádraig Brady]

On 11/02/2020 19:41, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 11/02/2020 10:45, Colin Watson wrote:
> > If the current directory has been removed, then "ls" confusingly
> > produced no output and no error message, indistinguishable from the case
> > of running on an empty directory.  It makes more sense to report ENOENT
> > in this case.
>
> I don't think this is a general solution as the opendir() spec states:
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/opendir.html
> "The directory entries for dot and dot-dot are optional".
> I've also seen reference to FUSE file systems that don't provide those entries.

In saying that, this is a common gotcha.
I wonder could we do something like:

+#ifdef __linux__
+      else if (! found_any_entries)
+        {
+          /* If readdir finds no directory entries at all, not even "." or
+             "..", then double check that the directory exists.  */
+          char buf[1024];
+          if (syscall(SYS_getdents, dirfd (dirp), buf, sizeof buf) == -1)
+            {
+              file_failure (command_line_arg, _("reading directory %s"), name);
+              break;
+            }
+        }
+#endif

cheers,
Pádraig