Re: [Boost-users] (newbie) is_regular_file vs. symlinks in boost::filesystem ?

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] (newbie) is_regular_file vs. symlinks in boost::filesystem ?
From: Christian Convey (christian.convey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-09-18 06:26:53

Are you sure?  It looks to me like the 1.51 documentation says the
same thing as my 1.50 documentation:

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_51_0/libs/filesystem/doc/reference.html#Enum-file_type

That makes it look like symlinks and regular files are mutually
exclusive, since they have different values in the file_type
enumeration, and is_regular_file just tests for which enumeration
value is associated with the given file's type:

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_51_0/libs/filesystem/doc/reference.html#is_regular_file

On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 12:14 AM, Steven Watanabe <watanabesj_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> AMDG
>
> On 09/17/2012 01:34 PM, Christian Convey wrote:
>> I'm writing code that takes a file pathname as a command-line
>> argument.  My program doesn't care whether the pathname is for a
>> regular file, or if it's a symlink that ultimately leads to a regular
>> file.
>>
>> This seems like such a common usage pattern that I would have expected
>> Boost to have a built-in solution to this problem.  But I don't see
>> one.  At the moment it looks like I'll have to write code like this:
>>
>> my_path = argv[1];
>>
>> while (my_path is a symlink) {
>>    set my_path to the target of the symlink;
>>    error out of a cycle or excessive indirection is detected;
>> }
>>
>> if (! is_regualr_file( my_path )) {
>>    tell user there's a problem;
>> }
>>
>> Do I really need to write code like this?
>>
>
> According to the current (1.51) documentation, no.
> is_regular_file should already handle this.
>
> In Christ,
> Steven Watanabe
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