Re: Re: SixPack mods for Linux users

On 10/17/10 10:23 AM, "Fish" (David B. Trout) wrote:
>>     Every time I accidentally type '/' (the two or three
>> times a year that I have to do something on a Windows box ;))
>> it doesn't work, at least in a "cd" command at a prompt.
>
> What O/S?

   Various, probably limited to Server 2000, Server 2003, and XP.

> Because according to Paul (paoloG) on Win2K forward slashes
> apparently don't work at the prompt (which is quite surprising to me but not
> altogether unbelievable). It DOES work on WinXP though. That I do know.

   I was able to try it under Windows 2003 today.  Leading the path with 
a '/' breaks it, as was discussed subsequently.

> What I suspect may be confusing people is the fact that "/dir" is NOT a
> valid path in Windows by virtue of the fact that, because it doesn't start
> with a period, it is thus interpreted as an absolute path instead of a
> relative path, and "/" is an invalid root drive file system specification in
> Windows. In Windows absolute root paths must start with a drive-letter-colon
> (e.g. "C:") sequence.
>
> But "./dir" IS a valid path. A valid *relative* path as it turns out.

   Ok, I see what you mean, thank you for the explanation.  What comes 
out of this is that Microsoft chose to not recognize a path separator 
character as the first character of a directory name to mean an absolute 
path within a filesystem, in an OS that doesn't support the notion of 
mounting other filesystems at arbitrary depths in the hierarchy. 
Another "development in a vacuum" issue, I suspect, and not entirely 
surprising, but it is what it is, and knowing the behavior is the 
important part.

   But there is a major inconsistency here, see below.

> The point is Windows accepts EITHER forward *or* backward slashes as path
> separators, but the path you specify MUST be a validly formed path.
> Otherwise you get an error.

   It (Server 2003) does NOT, however, treat '/' and '\' equally.  As 
with any non-nested-hierarchy-filesystem OS, you can type "cd \" to get 
to the root of the currently selected filesystem ("drive"),  while "cd 
/" does not work...in fact it does nothing, it doesn't even generate an 
error.

   Further, '\' referring the root of the currently selected drive is 
inconsistent with the "absolute root paths must start with a 
drive-letter-colon sequence.

   Again, knowing the behavior (as inconsistent with both themselves and 
the rest of the computing world as they may be) is the important part, 
and I appreciate your poking me with this additional information, which 
motivated me to go try a few things.

             -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL


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