[Python-Dev] [Python-checkins] cpython (2.7): Fix closes issue10761: tarfile.extractall failure when symlinked files are

[Senthil Kumaran]

On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 04:20:06PM +0200, Éric Araujo wrote:
> >          if hasattr(os, "symlink") and hasattr(os, "link"):
> >              # For systems that support symbolic and hard links.
> >              if tarinfo.issym():
> > +                if os.path.exists(targetpath):
> > +                    os.unlink(targetpath)
> 
> Is there a race condition here?

The lock to avoid race conditions (if you were thinking along those
lines) would usually be implemented at the higher level code which is
using extractall in threads.

Checking that no one else is accessing the file before unlinking may
not be suitable for the library method and of course, we cannot check
if someone is waiting to act on that file.

-- 
Senthil