Christo, and other concerned parties

Response to ADSM's handling of symbolic links.

The problem.

>.  When restoring a symbolic link that originally pointed
    to a directory, but the link no longer exists, a new
    directory is created with the name of the directory that
    the symbolic link originally pointed to.

>.  It is perceived that other unix clients handle this differently
For instance: Sun.

Testing:

>.  I have determined that the handling of symbolic links in this
    scenario does work as was indicated on the list.  This
    occurs on the latest client.  It is not true however, that the
    SUN client deals with it differently than the AIX client.

What the manuals say:

>.  The Using The Unix Backup-Archive Clients manual says:
    "If you restore a symbolic link that originally pointed to a
    directory, along with the files in the directory (for example,
    /home/smith/symdir/*), and the symbolic link does not exist on
    your file system, ADSM builds the directory on your workstation
    and puts the files in that directory.  If the subdir options is
    set to yes, ADSM recursively restores all subdirectories of the
    directory.

Conclusion:

>.  Currently, the symbolic links are working as designed and work
    as documented.  However, due to the growing concern over the way
    in which theses symbolic links are handled, I will look into
    possible changes.

    I am concerned that some customers may want to work as is while
    others may want the change.  I can make no promises on how and
    what may get changed, but I will pursue this and keep the list
    updated.

    Any ideas on how this may be changed?  A new option to give the
    user a choice on how things are changed?

    Any additional concerns?  Did I miss anything?

Thanks,  Monte Ambrose  (ADSM Client Development)