Re: Can't read lock file

[Corinna Vinschen <corinna-cygwin at cygwin dot com>]

On Nov 11 07:40, Fergus wrote:
> Q1. Is it still the case that this problem is "not well understood"
> as in this reference?
>    http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/cygwin-x-faq.html#q-cant-read-lock-file
> 
Hardlinks don't work on FAT filesystems since FAT doesn't support them.
Up to Cygwin 1.7.0-60, hardlinks on FAT were faked by copying the file.
This has obvious downsides (unsecure, potential denial-of-service
problems, portability), so we discussed and decided to remove this fake
and to return an error instead when trying to create a hardlink on a FAT
FS: http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2009-09/msg00208.html

> (My experiments with possible cause/ cure are confounded because on
> Machine 1 I have NTFS filesystems but lack administrator rights and
> on Machine 2 where I am Administrator, all filesystems are FAT32.)

Which is bad since FAT32 has no security at all.  Any process of any
user on the machine can overwrite any file, even in the Windows folder.
NTFS is much more secure and has a couple of features you never get with
FAT32, and hardlinks are only one minor advantage.  You should really
update the filesystem to NTFS using the on-board convert.exe tool.

As for X, it should have a fallback method if the /tmp filesystem
doesn't support hardlinks.


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Project Co-Leader          cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat

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