Re: [boost] More functions for Filesystem

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-09-05 09:17:33

Walter Landry wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> I have recently upgraded from 1.32 to the current prerelease, and it
> feels like filesystem is missing a few convenience functions.
> 
>   1) readlink: There is a way to create a symlink, but then no way to
>      query it later.
> 
>   2) nlink: Similarly, we can create a hard link, but can not query
>      its link count.
> 
>   3) copy_symlink: Note that this requires readlink in order to
>      function.
> 
>   4) copy_directory: create_directory creates directories with the
>      mode S_IRWXU|S_IRWXG|S_IRWXO.  That seems like a security hole
>      waiting to happen.  This would at least provide a way of
>      inheriting access properties.
> 
>   5) copy(): This would check what the first argument is and invoke
>      the appropriate function (copy_file, copy_symlink,
>      copy_directory).
> 
> Except for nlink, I have already implemented all of these functions
> because I needed them.  Is there any interest in getting these
> functions into the filesystem library?

I'm interested, particularly if they can be portably implemented.

Thanks,

--Beman