Re: [boost] [filesystem] create_directories

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-12-18 01:21:54

Beman Dawes wrote:

>  > > Care to contribute it?
>  >
>  >See attachment.
> 
> Nice!
> 
>  > A pretty trivial excersice, of course, except for one
>  >point. The create_directories function as written by me does nothing (not
>  >throws) if you call it on existing directory. And explicit "exists" 
> all is
>  >certainly needed for parent directories, and I'm not sure what to do with
>  >the full directory.
>  >
>  >Allowing it to exist seems in spirit of this function --- after all it
>  >automatically creates needed directories and does nothing with already
>  >existing.
> 
> Yes, I think so too.
> 
> How about the following?  Note that moving the "exists" up also prevents 
> the problem of trying to create_directories on the root directory.
> 
>     void create_directories(const path& ph)
>     {
>         if (ph.empty() || exists(ph))
>             return;
> 
>         // First create branch, by calling ourself recursively
>         create_directories(ph.branch_path());
>         // Now that parent's path exists, create the directory
>         create_directory(ph);
>     }

I agree to this.

>  >OTOH, this behaviour is different from 'create_directory', which 
> throws if
>  >directory does not exist.
> 
> No different from remove/remove_all. The convenience functions should be 
> just that; convenient. Worrying about consistency produces a less useful 
> interface.

OK, complete agreement.

 >  >Agreed. BTW, where would that header live? In CVS tree or in sandbox? And
 >  >what would be the access rules?
 >  >

No comment on this? Or, specifically, do you plan to add convenience.hpp to 
some CVS tree and place create_directories there any time soon?

- Volodya