[Gcl-devel] Re: directory/truename transition

[Camm Maguire]

Greetings!

Gabriel Dos Reis <address@hidden> writes:

> On Wed, 4 Jul 2007, Waldek Hebisch wrote:
> 
> | Important thing is that clisp file handling can loose some functionality
> | -- currently I do not know how to rename directory using clisp
> | (apparently clisp 'rename-file' does not work on directories).
> 
> I believe that is OK by ANSI spec.
> 
> | Similarly, I do not not how to delete empty directory using clisp.
> 
> There is nothing in ANSI spec for deleting directories -- you
> can create them, but you can't remove them using only ANSI spec.
> 
> I believe Camm recently offered to provide an extension if sufficient
> interest is expressed.
> 
> [...]
> 
> | change directory
> | make directory (done via C)
> | get current directory name
> | get absolute name of a directory
> | delete file or directory
> | rename file or directory
> | find all files matching pattern "*.NRLIB/index.KAF"
> | recursively copy directory with content (currently invokes the 'cp' program)
> | copy file (likewise)
> 

Question 1) -- as there are workarounds for mingw now with 2.6.x, does
it make sense to implement this transition only in 2.7.x and above?
No need for conditionals, etc.  I only went down this road re: 2.6.x
as Gaby said he needed a backport of ensure-directories-exist.

Proposal:

Functionality                      Function     Origin Portable  Implemented

change directory                   si::chdir    libc   Yes?      Yes

make directory (done via C)        si::mkdir    libc   Yes?      >=2.7

get current directory name         si::getcwd   libc   Yes?      Not yet

get absolute name of a directory   truename     GCL    Hopefully Yes,
                                                                   different
                                                                   semantic
                                                                   in
                                                                   >=2.7
                                                                   (trailing
                                                                   slash 
required)

delete file or directory           delete-file  GCL    Hopefully Yes
                                   si::rmdir    libc   Yes?      Not yet 

rename file or directory           rename-file  GCL    Hopefully Yes
                                   si::rename   libc   Yes?      Not yet 

find all files matching pattern    directory    GCL    Not yet   Partial(1)
  "*.NRLIB/index.KAF"

recursively copy directory with    si::cp-a     GCL    Should be Not yet
  content (currently invokes the                                   to be 
           'cp' program                                            built on 
                                                                   directory 
and si::cp. 
copy file (likewise)               si::cp       GCL    Should be Not yet
                                                                   to be 
                                                                   built on 
                                                                   
si::copy-stream and open.

(1) To be decided -- reimplement shell globbing in C ontop of openddir
    and readdir, or ship mingw shell along with gcc in Windows
    installer (verifying that the "limited" space support is adequate.)
(2) perhaps put new functions in a posix:: package, though that name
    would be quite misleading given the contents.


Once this is nailed down, the rest should not be too hard.

Take care,

> 

> 
> OK.
> 
> -- Gaby
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Camm Maguire                                            address@hidden
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah