[m-dev.] For review: improve mercury_cleanup_install

[Fergus Henderson]

On 11-Jan-2000, Warwick Harvey <wharvey at cs.monash.edu.au> wrote:
> Estimated hours taken: 4 (mostly testing ;-)
> 
> `mercury_cleanup_install' is currently called from during the standard
> install process if there's an error.  However, if this process is being done
> from the second stage bootcheck directory, `mercury_cleanup_install' doesn't
> work correctly, as it ignores symbolic links.  This change fixes this.
> 
> scripts/mercury_cleanup_install:
> 	Add support for following symbolic links.  This includes gracefully
> 	skipping a directory if it's already been cleaned up, due to
> 	symbolic links resulting in aliasing.

I think this may be a bad idea, because if a developer happens to have
a symbolic link to e.g. / in their directory, it will go and search the
entire file system, which may take an intolerable amount of time, and
it may even end up deleting `tmp_dir' directories from other people's
directories.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh at 128.250.37.3        |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
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