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

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?