Re: (expand-file-name "/..")

Mats Lidell writes:
 > >>>>> Stephen J Turnbull <[email protected]> writes:
 > 
 > > file-truename actually follows the path on the device.
 > 
 > I'm confused (and possibly stupid!). (file-truename "/foo/bar/..")
 > gives "/foo" on my system (XEmacs 21.5). I have no "/foo" directory
 > on this machine. So what does "actually follow the path on the
 > device" mean?

I'm not sure why this makes sense, but file-truename does
expand-file-name (or the equivalent in C) first.  Then it eliminates
symlinks.  So

/foo/bar/..
-> /foo         # expand-file-name
-> / + foo      # / exists and has realpath "/", foo does not exist
-> /foo         # appends remaining components

or something like that (I don't have time to look at the code, but
it's pretty hairy IIRC).