Re: file-readable-p returns t for empty string

[Eli Zaretskii]

On 28 Feb 2002, David Kastrup wrote:

> > See file-name-absolute-p.  It says that in Emacs, a file name is absolute 
> > if it satisfies one of these conditions:
> > 
> >   - begins with a directory separator (normally `/')
> > 
> >   - begins with a `~'
> > 
> >   - on DOS/Windows systems begins with a drive letter
> 
> Well, I doubt we have many programs that do the equivalent of
> (while (not (file-name-absolute-p file))
>         (setq file (expand-file-name file)))

I don't know; there are more than 50 uses of that primitive in the 
bundled packages, and many of them do use expand-file-name right after 
that.

Anyway, I just wanted to answer the (implied) question about what is 
considered an absolute file name in Emacs, to the effect that there is 
already a definition.  If that definition should now include "", we will 
have to make sure it doesn't break something important.