namei -l incorrect error message

[Seth Arnold]

Hello, namei -l gives incorrect error messages if a directory is not readable:

$ namei -l /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
f: /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
drwxr-xr-x root root /
drwxr-xr-x root root etc
drwxr-xr-x root root ssl
drwx--x--- root ssl-cert private
                         ssl-cert-snakeoil.key - No such file or directory
$ cat /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
cat: /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key: Permission denied
$ ls -l /etc/ssl/private/
ls: cannot open directory '/etc/ssl/private/': Permission denied

"No such file or directory" is a poor error message for this case. The correct error message (as shown by cat) is "Permission denied".

Incorrect error messages make this tool much less useful.

Thanks

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: util-linux 2.31.1-0.4ubuntu3.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-45.48-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-45-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.5
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Mar 4 09:00:12 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-18 (2328 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120823.1)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=rxvt-unicode-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: util-linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-05-02 (306 days ago)

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Yay, this appears to have been fixed in focal:

$ namei -l /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
f: /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
drwxr-xr-x root root /
drwxr-xr-x root root etc
drwxr-xr-x root root ssl
drwx--x--- root ssl-cert private
                         ssl-cert-snakeoil.key - Permission denied