I'll pay $40 in e-gold if you'll fix this bug.

[Zane Lewkowicz]

Greetings to Pythonistas, Pythoniandos and Python Hackers 
everywhere!


I have written some Python scripts for my own amusement, and 
I'm stymied by a "bug" involving traversing symlinked 
directories in a Linux ext2 filesystem.


I'm offering 40.00 USD for a patch to my code that makes my 
"scoot()" function do what I want it to, like this:


------- begin imaginary bash transcript
bash$ cd /tmp
bash$ mkdir dirOne
bash$ mkdir dirTwo
bash$ mkdir dirTwo/dirThree
bash$ ln -s dirTwo/dirThree .
bash$ cd dirThree
bash$ echo "hi there" > file.txt
bash$ scoot.py file.txt ../dirOne 
bash$ cd /tmp
bash$ cd dirOne
bash$ ls -al
total 3
drwx------   2 zooko    zooko        1024 Jun  8 01:10 .
drwx------   4 zooko    zooko        1024 Jun  8 01:07 ..
-rw-------   1 zooko    zooko           9 Jun  8 01:09 file.txt
bash$ cd /tmp/dirThree
bash$ ls -al
total 2
drwx------   2 zooko    zooko        1024 Jun  8 01:10 .
drwx------   3 zooko    zooko        1024 Jun  8 01:07 ..
lrwxrwxrwx   1 zooko    zooko          21 Jun  8 01:10 file.txt -> ../../dirOne/file.txt
bash$ cat file.txt
hi there
bash$
------- end imaginary bash transcript


Currently, it does this:


------- begin actual bash transcript
bash$ cd /tmp
bash$ mkdir dirOne
bash$ mkdir dirTwo
bash$ mkdir dirTwo/dirThree
bash$ ln -s dirTwo/dirThree .
bash$ cd dirThree
bash$ echo "hi there" > file.txt
bash$ scoot.py file.txt ../dirOne 
/bin/mv: cannot create regular file `../dirOne/file.txt': No such file or directory
bash$ cd /tmp
bash$ cd dirOne
bash$ ls -al
total 5
drwx------   2 zooko    zooko        1024 Jun  8 01:12 .
drwxrwxrwt  12 root     root         4096 Jun  8 01:12 ..
bash$ cd /tmp/dirThree
bash$ ls -al
total 3
drwx------   2 zooko    zooko        1024 Jun  8 01:12 .
drwx------   3 zooko    zooko        1024 Jun  8 01:12 ..
-rw-------   1 zooko    zooko           9 Jun  8 01:12 file.txt
bash$ cat file.txt
hi there
bash$
------- end actual bash transcript


The code for "scoot.py" and the related functions in "zutil.py"
is available at 
"http://wildgoose.tandu.com/~zooko/PythonHacking/".



I have $40.00 worth of e-gold ("http://e-gold.com/") which 
I'll give to the author of the best, most elegant, solution 
(IMO, of course).


If you create an e-gold account (takes less than 5 minutes) 
then I can transfer the money to you in instantaneous digital 
form, or if you prefer I'll have e-gold.com debit my account 
and cut you a snail mail check.


I'll keep the newsgroup posted of what kind of response I get 
to this offer.


:-)


Regards,

Zooko

-------
"Must it be assumed that because we are engineers beauty is not
 our concern, and that while we make our constructions robust 
 and durable we do not also strive to make them elegant?"
                                              -- Gustave Eiffel