Bugs item #1012135, was opened at 2004-08-19 14:01 Message generated for change (Tracker Item Submitted) made by Item Submitter You can respond by visiting: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=107586&aid=1012135&group_id=7586 Category: None Group: None Status: Open Resolution: None Priority: 5 Submitted By: Carlo Wood (libcw) Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody) Summary: boost::filesystem is systematically broken Initial Comment: As is currently discussed on the boost mailinglist, cygwin is supposed to support windows paths (at least, when compiled with BOOST_WINDOWS, which is currently the default). I understand that Beman, the author of boost::filesystem, wants it that way. However, boost::filesystem does not accept a path like "/usr" (fs::exists fails in that case), when compiled with BOOST_WINDOWS and it *also* doesn't accept windows paths, like "c:/cygwin/usr", "C:\cygwin\usr" or anything remotely 'windows' like, because it throws when you try to construct a fs::path with a colon in it! As a result, one can ONLY construct usable paths on cygwin in the very non-portable format "/cggdrive/c/cygwin/usr" which is neither POSIX (on linux the same path would be "/usr") nor native (the _users_ of the application will view this path as "C:\cygwin\usr"). It is 100% cygwin specific. OR one has to construct paths on cygwin using 'native' all the time (or no_check) as path checker, because even windows_name doesn't work :/ Consider the following code: #include <iostream> #include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp> #include <boost/filesystem/operations.hpp> int main() { try { boost::filesystem::path p("C:\cygwin\usr", &boost::filesystem::windows_name); } catch(std::exception const& error) { std::cerr << "Exception: " << error.what() << std::endl; } } With the following result: Exception: boost::filesystem::path: invalid name "C:\cygwin\usr" in path: "C:\cygwin\usr" Same thing with any other variation that starts with 'C:'. I believe that this is a structural failure of boost::filesystem, revealing a major error in the design. A re-design seems to be in order before it can be considered to be usable in multi-platform applications. The most important problem with the current design is that a single type (namely fs::path) is being used for effectively two different types: canonical paths and native paths. A new design should provide a new type, fs::native_path that cannot be mixed with the canonical path representation. This native_path should have builtin checks that are native and fs::path should only check for portability (and allow relaxation of that when lesser OS need to be supported). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=107586&aid=1012135&group_id=7586 ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by Shop4tech.com-Lowest price on Blank Media 100pk Sonic DVD-R 4x for only $29 -100pk Sonic DVD+R for only $33 Save 50% off Retail on Ink & Toner - Free Shipping and Free Gift. http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Inkjet_Cartridges/9_108_r285 _______________________________________________ Boost-bugs mailing list Boost-bugs@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/boost-bugs