When a directory contains a symbolic link to a non-existent file DIRECTORY signals an error. E.g. create a link like this: bash> cd /tmp ; ln -s non-existent bad-link bash> ls -l bad-link lrwxrwxrwx 1 helmut helmut 12 Dec 1 15:29 bad-link -> non-existent and then in CMUCL: CMU Common Lisp snapshot-2012-10 (20C Unicode), running on ix With core: /opt/cmucl/cmucl-2012-10/lib/cmucl/lib/lisp-sse2.core Dumped on: Sun, 2012-09-30 08:33:59+02:00 on lorien2 See <http://www.cmucl.org/> for support information. Loaded subsystems: Unicode 1.28 with Unicode version 6.1.0 Python 1.1, target Intel x86/sse2 CLOS based on Gerd's PCL 2010/03/19 15:19:03 * (directory "/tmp/*.*") File-error in function TRUENAME: The file "/tmp/bad-link" does not exist. [Condition of type KERNEL:SIMPLE-FILE-ERROR] Is that necessary? Or is there some (portable) way to avoid the error? Helmut