[boost] [filesystem] status() if neither file nor directory?

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-08 10:53:45

In http://www.esva.net/~beman/filesystem_operations_predicates.htm, the 
assumptions was that file system entities are either files or directories.

But an operating system might support additional file system entities which 
can only be accessed via a specific API, and can't be accessed via fstreams 
or directory_iterators.

For example, on some operating systems, sockets are file system entities 
and may be found during directory iterations, but can't be opened as either 
directories or fstreams.

What to do? Possibilities:

1) Add an other_flag and a matching is_other() function. Change definition 
of exists() to status() & (directory_flag|file_flag|other_flag)

2) Try to identify specific other types like sockets, and define flags and 
predicate functions for each. Handle future needs by saying an 
implementation has to define suitable flags and predicate functions for any 
additional kinds of files.

3) Treat such entities as files.

4) Treat such entities as errors.

5) Treat such entities as not found.

To me, (1) seems best. (2) is too open ended, and without a matching API to 
access the additional types, doesn't do much beyond (1). The others are not 
acceptable because they are misleading and don't match expectations.

Comments?

--Beman