Re: [boost] [Filesystem] Native Pathname Format

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-09-01 17:44:18

Edward Diener wrote:
> I can not determine from the Filesystem documentation, nor the reference
> documentation which comes with it, what is the acceptable syntax for the
> native pathname format. It appears one must start the native pathname
> format with //: in order for it to be recognized,

The explicit //: form is not needed for POSIX, Windows, and most other 
operating systems since their native syntax will implicitly be 
recognized. The explicit //: form is only needed if you are dealing with 
an operating system where a slash is a valid part of a name, rather than 
a separator.

> but I can not tell
> from what appears to me to be very confusing documentation whether this
> is so for the Boost Fileystem implementation. This would mean, let's say
> under Windows, that "c:\afile" would not be recognized but that
> "//:c:\afile" would be recognized, as far as I can make out from the
> documentation. It sure is confusing IMO.

I think you meant "c:\\afile". On Windows, "c:\\afile" will be 
recognized correctly. AFAIK, there are no cases for either Windows or 
POSIX-like operating systems where the Boost implementation will fail to 
implicitly recognize the native format.

> Can anybody clarify how this works for Filesystem and/or where there is
> a clear explanation of how it works in the documentation ?

I assume you have read 
http://www.boost.org/libs/filesystem/doc/tr2_proposal.html#Pathname-formats

If so, and you still have questions, please post them here.

Thanks,

--Beman