Re: [boost] Boost.Process 0.5: Another update/potential candidate for an official library

Subject: Re: [boost] Boost.Process 0.5: Another update/potential candidate for an official library
From: Boris Schaeling (boris_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-11-16 19:04:14

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:59:11 +0100, Vicente J. Botet Escriba  
<vicente.botet_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> [...]I guess that in this case the library should either allow only  
> absolute paths or transform the relative path on an absolute path so  
> that it is not subject to interpretations that depend on the platform.
> Could this be possible?

We could call boost::filesystem::absolute() to turn a relative path into  
an absolute one. I'm not sure where to put this call though. If it's put  
into start_in_dir to make an absolute path just before chdir() is called,  
it won't work with this code:

execute(start_in_dir("bla"), run_exe("../foo"));

Here start_in_dir is run before run_exe. So there is no path yet to turn  
into an absolute one. But if we put the call into run_exe, this could be  
surprising:

run_exe r("../foo");
chdir("bar");
execute(r, start_in_dir("bla"));

../foo will be relative to whatever the current work directory was when  
run_exe was instantiated and not relative to bar. But then all those  
directory changes are confusing anyway. So maybe it makes most sense to  
call boost::filesystem::absolute() in the constructor of run_exe?

Boris