Re: Tramp: how to handle make-symbolic-link?

[Stefan Monnier]

> What should be the LINKNAME argument of make-symbolic-link when
> invoking Tramp?  For non-absolute link targets, the following appears
> natural:
> 
> (make-symbolic-link "/address@hidden:/name/of/file" "linkname")
> 
> So the LINKNAME argument does not look like a Tramp filename.  But
> what if the target of the symbolic link is an absolute filename?
> Which of the two kinds of calls do we expect?
> 
> (make-symbolic-link "/address@hidden:/name/of/file" 
> "/address@hidden:/path/to/target")
> (make-symbolic-link "/address@hidden:/name/of/file" "/path/to/target")

In my mind, symbolic links are just special kinds of files and their
"target" is just an arbitrary string which happens to be interpreted
by the file-system code (but can also be used for other things, see
for example the .# locking used by Emacs).
So I think Emacs (and thus Tramp) should handle the target as a string,
not as a filename.


        Stefan