[Sunhelp] circular recursive search

[james at lasolas.com]

Ana Yuseepi wrote:
> 
> we all know that some files in the default installation of solaris have circular links....
> 
> to mention a few, we have
> /usr/X/bin/xview -> .
> 
> but, with find, as in
> # find / -name install
> the above command always terminates successfully...
> but when i do,
> # mkdir /new
> # cp /usr /new
> the above 2 commands, would result to some never ending loop due to the circular link...
> 
> whats the step taken for this between "find" and "copy"?
> -Ana : )

The gnu versions of find, cp, etc. all have options for not following
symlinks.  You can do it with the sun utils, but it's much easier to
download the gnu versions at sunfreeware.com.  That's the first thing I
do after installing solaris on a new box...

with gnu:
	cp -a /usr /new

James R.