Re: [Boost-users] Using filesystem.path on OS/390

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-06-19 17:16:40

"Tom Quarendon" <tomq_at_[hidden]> wrote in message 
news:42B11696.8010902_at_teamwpc.co.uk...
> In the filesystem rationale documentation there are references to the
> need and desire to represent paths on OS/390. However I can find no
> documentation about how this is achieved.
> Does the filesystem path class support OS/390 paths such as the syntax
> for PDSE members or DDnames? If so are there some examples?

Hard to know how to answer this. In theory, yes, but subject to various 
worries:

* It has never been tested (at least by me or anyone else public reporting 
the Boost regression test results). There were a couple of emails back and 
forth with an OS/390 product manager, and I read some of the documentation 
that is online.

* The internationalized version currently under development (and scheduled 
for Boost 1.34 rather than 1.33) is better at just passing paths on to the 
operating system without modification. So you might have to wait for that.

* IIRC, POSIX paths are supposed to be recognized by OS/390 (along with 
several other notations.) I'm not sure if a programmer has to do something 
to enable POSIX paths, or they "just work." But because POSIX paths are know 
to work correctly in general, that is where I would suggest starting to 
test. If they work, then try some of the native exotic notations.

I'm very interested in understanding what has to be done to get 
Boost.Filesystem to work with operating systems beyond the usual 
Windows/Mac/Linux/Unix world. So please feel free to raise issues as you run 
into them.

Thanks,

--Beman