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Re: Diff: null device instead of empty file? [was: svn commit: r17181 - trunk/subversion/libsvn_wc]

From: Julian Foad <julianfoad_at_btopenworld.com>
Date: 2005-11-07 00:07:14 CET

Branko Čibej wrote:
> Julian Foad wrote:
>>
>> To clarify my position: I have done some general programming under
>> DOS/Windows, including stdio, in which I know it is easy to open and
>> read "NUL:", but I have less experience of the file-handle APIs that
>> are (AFAIK) much more widely used, and cannot definitively answer this
>> question. From what little knowledge and experience I have both as a
>> programmer and as a user, my impression is that devices (including
>> NUL) would often not be supported.
>>
>> I don't know what Branko's position of authority is on the matter. I
>> reacted based on the impression that he was as unqualified as I am;
>> apologies if this is not so.
>
> Heh, looks like you got some private mail from somewhere. :)

No. I just realised after sending my previous message that it wasn't
particularly clever of me to just state a contrary opinion without indicating
why I thought that way. Then I remembered that you currently do some Windows
programming so were more likely to be speaking from knowledge than I was...

> The special device names are supported by the Win32 (and now Win64...)
> API layer directly. As I said, a Windows app would have to go out of its
> way to make them _not_ work. Interestingly enough, Word /is/ such [...]

Oh, OK. I'm glad to hear it. (I wrote the message quoted above before you
first said that.)

> (BTW, since /dev/null is actually a character device, not a regular
> file, I suppose it's about as probable that a Unix diff tool refuses to
> work with /dev/null as it is that a Windows app chokes on NUL:...).

OK!

- Julian

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Received on Mon Nov 7 00:09:33 2005

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