Re: [boost] Re: Filesystem library: remove / etc

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-03-20 07:50:24

At 02:46 AM 3/20/2002, Ross Smith wrote:

 >> if (exists(filename)) remove(filename);
 >
 >Race condition.

Yes, but it is way worse than that.  Rather than another thread in your own 
program causing the problem, it might be another process.  Or another 
computer on the other side of the world.

Like all I/O, directory operations are subject to unexpected 
errors.  Consider the following assert, which may fail even in a 
non-threaded environment:

    assert( exists( "foo" ) == exists( "foo" ) );

I don't see anything to do about these problems except to warn people that 
the problems may occur.

Does anyone have a better idea?

--Beman