Atomic simultaneous file rename and contents replacement? about renameio HOT 2 CLOSED

It is possible that duplicating the directory containing foo and then replacing that directory with a new directory containing encrypted_foo might do the job, but maybe there's an easier method?

Using different directories is the only way I know of. Note that you can’t atomically replace a directory, though (from rename(2)):

oldpath can specify a directory. In this case, newpath must either not exist, or it must specify an empty directory.

One way to get around this is to use a symbolic link. I’m doing this in pgt-gopath: https://github.com/Debian/pkg-go-tools/blob/31d6c2510aace2dfbcc2699eec039da91c614cd1/cmd/pgt-gopath/gopath.go#L44

I don’t think that strategy works well for chezmoi, though, as you typically have much less control over the directory layout.

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Thanks very much for the answer. That all makes sense.

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