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From: Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au>
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Subject: Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 09:25:36 +1100
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On 22Feb2016 10:11, Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> wrote:
>On 02/14/2016 04:08 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
>
>>I am unconcerned with whether there is a real filesystem entry of that
>>name; the goal entails having no filesystem activity for this. I want a
>>valid unique filesystem path, without touching the filesystem.
>
>This is impossible.  If you don't touch the file system you have no way to 
>know if the path is unique.

I think Ben wants to avoid filesystem modification (let us ignore atime here).  
So one can read the filesystem to see what is current, but he does not want to 
actually make any new filesystem entry. 

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au>