Re: [Boost-users] filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator quits on unreadable directory

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator quits on unreadable directory
From: Charles Karney (ckarney_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-10-06 11:47:11

Ravi wrote:
> On Thursday 02 October 2008 16:42:24 Charles Karney wrote:
>> The increment operator in filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator
>> throws an exception when trying to enter an unreadable directory
>> (permissions, no-such-device, etc.).  Often (usually?), a user wants to
>> be able to skip the unreadable directory and continue the iteration over
>> the rest of the directory tree.
>>
>> Catching this exception doesn't help because the iterator hasn't been
>> incremented and I couldn't figure a way to skip over the unreadble
>> directory.
> 
> Could you please file a trac item for this? The patch that you have proposed 
> does not seem right; the user might wish to be informed. Perhaps the right 
> approach is to throw the exception but ensure that the user can still skip 
> over the unreadable directory after catching the exception.
> 
> Regards,
> Ravi

It's not obvious where I file a trac item...  Please tell me where or else
feel free to file on my behalf.  (I'm not a registered boost developer.)

I agree that it's not obvious how this error should be handled.  Letting
the user trap the error and then skip the unreadable directory is a
possibility.  However, wrapping a try/catch around the increment clause
of a for loop seems to be awkward.  My patch effectively treats unreadable
directories as empty which would seem to be plausible default (and such
behavior should be documented of course).

-- 
Charles Karney <ckarney_at_[hidden]>
Sarnoff Corporation, Princeton, NJ 08543-5300
URL: http://charles.karney.info
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]