"Mathew Robertson" <mathew.robertson@redsheriff.com> wrote in message news:028101c554fc$b9c0cfc0$a901000a@mat...
Sure, but it seems like you can only use that facility on a system you already have prior knowledge about. Part of that knowledge could come from ::stat(), either directly or wrapped in a call to boost::filesystem::status().
Yes that knowledge _could_ come from status(), but for platforms that dont support the named property, the implementation should return something useful as a fallback.
However, is_blah() should "do the right thing" on platforms which dont support 'blah'
And we have done that where the "right thing" is obvious, such as "false" for is_symlink() on Windows. I'm not against adding more such "do the right thing" functions when we can figure out what the "right thing" is.
But if stat() doesn't report both S_ISDIR and S_ISREG true at the same time, there isn't any way to practically implement status(), even if you buy the argument that reporting both would be desirable.
sure there is... dont use stat() ...
Somehow query for the file system in use, and have a table of what file systems support reading directories? Try to open a known directory for reading? Those don't seem practical to me. But stat() may give the correct results on at least some systems. I'll try Apple OS X to see what happens. --Beman