# Re: \[BUG\] Generic syscalls -- chmod vs. fchmodat

- From: Andries Brouwer \<hidden\>
- Date: 2011-02-10 18:19:11 
- List: linux-api
- Page: https://ratatoskr.run/linux-api/2011/02/3676068
- Thread: https://ratatoskr.run/linux-api/2011/01/3669681/t.md

```text
On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 09:45:15AM -0800, Roland McGrath wrote:

> the empty string has never been a valid relative pathname.

Hmm. I definitely recall otherwise.

The old Unix definition is that the empty string stands for "."
so that 'ls ""' means the same as 'ls .'
and 'ls /tmp/""' the same as 'ls /tmp/.'.

Let me try.

On a recent Linux system:

% ls -l ""
ls: cannot access : No such file or directory

On an old Unix system:

# ls -l ""
drwxr-xr-x  2 bin      1040 Jan  1  1970 bin
drwxr-xr-x  2 bin       352 Jan  1  1970 dev
drwxr-xr-x  2 bin       304 Aug 20 12:39 etc
...

Andries
```