Re: canonicalize_file_name should support win32 shortcuts

[Eric Blake]

On 08/23/2011 11:31 AM, Sam Steingold wrote:
> First of all, newer windows do have symlinks.

Does mingw support them natively?  If not, then we should get that fixed 
in mingw; perhaps by starting with an lstat() that actually works on 
windows symlinks.

> Second, canonicalize is already an extension module, so why not extend
> it to work well with a popular extension of a popular platform? :-)

I'm not so concerned about supporting cygwin symlinks outside of cygwin 
as I am in supporting native windows symlinks from native windows 
programs.  This is where an lgpl implementation of dealing with native 
windows symlinks would be useful.

> > Maybe we should rename the canonicalize module to instead be
> > canonicalize_filename_mode, since it does _not_ provide canonicalize()
> > (well, canonicalize_filename_mode(file, CAN_EXISTING) is identical to
> > canonicalize(), but the other modes are what introduce the baggage).
>
> yes, I think there should be a very minimalist realpath module whose job
> is to provide the posix realpath with minimum dependencies (well,
> minimum dependencies is my constant mantra, applicable to extension
> modules just as much as to portability ones).

canonicalize-lgpl _is_ the minimalize realpath()/canonicalize() module. 
 It's just that we need to have a mingw setup that supports native 
windows symlinks using lgpl code, before canonicalize-lgpl can take 
advantage of it.

--
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org