Re: {base,dir}name // semantics

[Bob Proulx]

Eric Blake wrote:
> I take it a simple autoconf test is in order (how about just testing
> to see if 'ls -di / //' produces 2 different inodes?), and that the
> results be used in the gnulib dirname module.

Will that be sufficient?  If Cygwin is using this then it might be the
only active system with that feature right now.  So if that works
there that would probably be enough.

As far as I know the //hostname/path came from the old Apollo domain
operating system.  There //hostname was rather like NFS with the
automounter running a host map and /net/hostname.  So //hostname
referenced the network on those systems.  On networks running Apollo
domain everyone shared a common network filesystem path.  Very
convenient and people who used that system loved it for this feature.
That network filesystem feature later made its way into OSF/1 which
was meant to be a combination of Apollo domain and other unix flavors
rolled into a new combination system.  And after that the lineage
pretty much died out.

Bob