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Subject: [boost] [filesystem] Should recursive_directory_iterator follow directory symlinks by default?
From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-02-09 09:15:24


recursive_directory_iterator currently always follows directory symlinks

It seems to me that whether or not this behavior is desirable is
application dependent.

Thus I'd like to add an option to either following directory symlinks
or not. Which should the default be?

Following symlinks by default avoids breaking existing code, so that's
my mild preference, but I'm wondering if anyone has a strong argument
for not following directory symlinks by default?

--Beman

PS: Windows identifies symlinks to directories, so it is possible to
have a dangling symlink to a non-existent directory.
recursive_directory_iterator currently tries to recurse into the
non-existent directory. That's just a bug and I'm about to fix it.


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