RE: [boost] [filesystem] size() on directory?

From: Powell, Gary (powellg_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-02-03 12:48:58

Beman wrote:

How should size( "foo" ) behave if "foo" is a directory?

1) Throw. The function should be renamed file_size().

2) Return 0. Directories don't strictly speaking have a size.

3) Return the number of entries in the directory. Directories are really 
just containers; so of course they have a size.
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Gary Replies:
  #1, while an OS can implement directories as a file of information, I think its conceptually wrong for this function to ask for its "size". When iterating through a file system you should first guarantee that the file name is a file and not that of a sub directory.

  The 4th answer would be to return the total size of all the files within the directory. But I think that's also conceptually confusing as well.

  Yours,
  -Gary-