Re: [boost] [filesystem] adding path equality and path equivalence

From: Jeff Garland (jeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-02-01 19:19:29

> > > Beman Dawes writes:
> > >
> > > Equivalence
> > > 
> > > Two paths will be considered equivalent if they resolve to the same
> > > physical directory or file
> > > 
> > > Question 2: What if neither exist? 
>
> > "Jeff Garland" <jeff_at_[hidden]> writes:
> >
> > How about 2 symbolic links pointing at the same unmounted volume?  

> On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 17:58:17 -0500, Jeremy Maitin-Shepard wrote:
> I would think that the default behavior should be to resolve symbolic
> links.  To better handle symbolic links, several functions could be
> added, which might include is_symbolic_link, resolve_relative (or
> resolve_relatively), which works the same way as readlink, and resolve
> (or resolve_absolute or resolve_absolutely or resolve_complete), 
> which would be equivalent to complete(resolve_relative(ph), ph).  In 
> addition, it would be useful to have a function unresolved(path) or 
> dont_resolve(path) which returns a path wrapped such that the 
> various functions do not resolve it if it is a symbolic link.

All this sounds reasonble, but it complicates things alot for both the user
and Beman.  I'd certainly be ok without these functions for the first release
with future addition subject to user need as judged by Beman.

Jeff