. file question (bug?)

[Randy_Davis]

In article <1670002 at hpcilzb.HP.COM> tedj at hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes:
:
:When does the "." file, which describes the current directory,
:get updated?  Only when you do an fsck?  
:
:In the following example, I created a directory and make 2 files.
:After deleting one of the files, the "." file thought that they
:were both still there.  Is this a bug???

  No it didn't, the names just happened to still be in the file, but they
were marked as removed by setting the inode reference to zero, something that
the strings program will not show you.

:hpcillm(tedj) 279>strings .
:hpcillm(tedj) 280>touch file1
:hpcillm(tedj) 281>strings .
:file1
:hpcillm(tedj) 282>touch file2
:hpcillm(tedj) 283>strings .
:file1
:file2
:hpcillm(tedj) 284>rm file2
:hpcillm(tedj) 285>strings .
:file1
:file2
:hpcillm(tedj) 286>ls
:file1

Try "od -c .", if you have it.  It will show everything pertainent.

Randy