Re: [boost] [filesystem] Should recursive_directory_iterator follow directory symlinks by default?

Subject: Re: [boost] [filesystem] Should recursive_directory_iterator follow directory symlinks by default?
From: Jeremy Maitin-Shepard (jeremy_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-02-09 12:37:13

On 02/09/2011 08:43 AM, Stewart, Robert wrote:
> Beman Dawes wrote:
>>
>> recursive_directory_iterator currently always follows
>> directory symlinks
>>
>> It seems to me that whether or not this behavior is desirable is
>> application dependent.
>
> +1
>
>> Thus I'd like to add an option to either following directory symlinks
>> or not. Which should the default be?
>
> *nix follows symlinks by default.  One must use special APIs to recognize and inspect symlinks.  I should think consistency across platforms would be good.

That isn't really true.  There isn't any POSIX function for recursive 
directory walking.  It is simply a matter of whether lstat or stat is 
used to check whether directory entries are themselves directories.  As 
one example, GNU find does not follow symlinks by default.