Re: Files with trailing dots on Windows

von Löwis Martin wrote:
>
> The files are not meaningful on Windows, yet I maintain
> that subversion should not rename them to "Insert file name"
> and then claim that they got removed.

Ahh, but it is not Subversion that does the renaming. It is Windows.

The wonderful, strange, convoluted history of Windows and its filesystems
and APIs dealing with its filesystems are the cause - mostly due to
poor fore-thought as they moved forward in APIs and filesystems.

The chain of events in the "design" of the Windows API is not important
here but you can see the results when you try to name a file like that,
even from within Explorer. Just try it - the dots just go away and it is
not Explorer that does it. It is the file/directory manipulation API.

Now, yes, it would be nice to work around this but it is a PITA and will
still end up causing Windows users problems because the moment they
manipulate the file/directory with traditional "windows" tools the dots
at the end of the file will disappear.

Please don't blame Subversion for something that is OS specific.

(BTW - UNIX systems can have a filename that is "a:b:c" and sometimes
do have such names. Try doing that on Windows - the colon is illegal
in Windows - what should a cross-platform tool do? For example, try
to check out this subversion directory:

        http://svn.sinz.com/svn/example/trunk/tests/TestCase-:-/

It will just really get Windows upset and yet this works just fine on most
all other platforms.)

-- 
Michael Sinz                     Technology and Engineering Director/Consultant
"Starting Startups"                                mailto:michael.sinz@sinz.org
My place on the web                            http://www.sinz.org/Michael.Sinz
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