[Boost-users] [filesystem] Making .zip files appear as directories

Subject: [Boost-users] [filesystem] Making .zip files appear as directories
From: Adam Nielsen (a.nielsen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-04-05 01:53:05

Hi all,

I'm working on a library that manipulates file archives (although it won't
work with .zip or .lha files, they're a perfect example of the types of files
it will work with.)

I'm wondering whether a good approach would be to extend the Boost Filesystem
library so that it can open these files as if they were folders.  That would
allow the users of this library to work with the contents of the archive files
in the same way they might work with "real" files in a directory on the local
system.

Can the Boost Filesystem library be extended in this manner?  If so, does
anyone have any pointers as to what classes would need to be implemented to
achieve something like this?  Would it still remain somewhat independent of
the underlying filesystem code, so that it would still be cross-platform?

Many thanks,
Adam.