Re: Boost.URL: Something Wicked This Way Comes!

From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2021-10-14 00:32:06

On 10/14/21 3:25 AM, Andrey Semashev wrote:
> On 10/14/21 2:52 AM, Vinnie Falco via Boost wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 13, 2021 at 4:09 PM Gavin Lambert via Boost
>> <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>> ...
>>
>> Given the following path:
>>
>>     /path/to/file.txt
>>
>> What should iterating the segments return?
>>
>>     { "path", "to", "file.txt" }
>>     or
>>     { "/path", "/to", "/file.txt" }
>>
>> or something else?
>>
>> Given this path:
>>
>>     my/download/folder/
>>
>> What should iterating the segments return?
>>
>>     { "my", "download", "folder", "" }
>>     or
>>     { "my/", "download/", "folder/" }
>>     or
>>     { "my", "/download", "/folder", "/" }
>>
>> or something else?
>>
>> Given an empty relative-ref (empty string) in a url u, what is the
>> encoded path after executing this statement?
>>
>>     u.segments().push_back( "index.htm" );
>>
>> Anyone feel free to answer!
> 
> If std::filesystem::path is an example to follow then path elements
> should not contain path separators, except the root directory. The
> trailing separator is indicated by an empty final element. So:
> 
>   /my/download/folder/
> 
> would correspond to:
> 
>   { "/", "my", "download", "folder", "" }
> 
> and
> 
>   /path/to/file.txt
> 
> to
> 
>   { "/", "path", "to", "file.txt" }
> 
> I think, URL paths must always have the root directory as the leading
> slash is a necessary separator from the host and port, so you could
> probably omit it from the list of elements.

Two corner cases to consider is when you have no path at all, and when
you have a root directory as a path. Those two cases have to be distinct
in terms of observed sequence of elements. I.e.

  https:://example.com?foo=42

should be different from

  https:://example.com/?foo=42

in terms of observed elements of the path.