Re: [boost] [filesystem] home_directory_path

Subject: Re: [boost] [filesystem] home_directory_path
From: Bjørn Roald (bjorn_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-10-19 16:21:56

On 10/19/2010 06:56 PM, Christian Holmquist wrote:
>
> Is there a POSIX equivalent for My Documents?
>    

I think the users home directory is the closest you get as a general 
statement unless you start getting into details that are more specific 
for each POSIX system and/or distribution.

> Without a way to retrieve My Documents, I for one still needs my own wrapper
> for that..
>
> About the boost.filesystem API, maybe it'd be a good idea to have it similar
> to the SHGetFolder function, i.e. the user passes an enum about which
> special path (s)he wants, instead of a separate call for each.
>
> enum os_path_t
> {
>    path_temp,
>    path_home,
>    path_windows_my_documents,  // Or is this too ugly?
> };
>    

It is not ugly - maybe a bit wordy and not so portable.  Why not having 
the function returning the "My Documents" folder on Windows return the 
home directory on POSIX.  That way that method can be used if you desire 
My Documents on Windows but still work in a sensible way on POSIX 
systems. A set of  names of methods/enums and typical returned paths 
could be:

method name                                POSIX  path        XP path
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
temp_path                                     /tmp                    
c:\TEMP
user_(home|profile)_path             /home/bjorn        c:\Documents and 
Settings\bjorn
user_docs_path                             /home/bjorn        
c:\Documents and Settings\bjorn\My Documents

this could possibly be extended to other useful operating environment 
paths if it make any sense and it is possible to find useful mapping on 
all systems:

user_appdata_path                      /home/bjorn                       
c:\Documents and Settings\bjorn\AppData
appdata_path                               /etc       
                               c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\AppData
user_desktop_path                      /home/bjorn/Desktop  ??  
c:\Documents and Settings\bjorn\Desktop
desktop_path                               /etc/Desktop ??      
            c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\AppData
etc..

Before any of these are to be supported they should be deemed useful and 
robust ways of getting correct results on all target systems must be 
found for each function.

> namespace filesystem
> {
>   path get_os_path(os_path_t)
> }
>
> os_path might not the best name, but you get the idea..
>    

I have no preference for either enum based or multiple function based 
solution, but I am curious to what the benifit of an enum based solution 
is.

-- 
Bjørn