[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #54489] exist and isdir should look for directories on the load path

[Mike Miller]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54489>

                 Summary: exist and isdir should look for directories on the
load path
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: mtmiller
            Submitted on: Fri 10 Aug 2018 03:38:52 PM PDT
                Category: Octave Function
                Severity: 2 - Minor
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Matlab Compatibility
                  Status: Postponed
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: 
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: dev
        Operating System: Any

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Details:

The Matlab function 'exist' looks for function files or mex files on the
search path. If it is given an arbitrary file name, it also looks for that
file on the search path. The same is true of directory names.


mkdir /tmp/mydir
addpath /tmp
exist ('mydir')         ## this should return 7
exist ('mydir', 'dir')  ## same


And the 'isdir' function follows the same logic, so it makes sense to be
implemented using 'exist'. Fixing 'exist' will fix 'isdir', both should be
documented as such.

Since 'isdir' may find directories on the load path, the new function
'isfolder' (see bug #54456) should be preferred if the code expects to be
dealing only with relative or absolute directory names. I beleve 'isfolder'
should be added first, and existing code migrated to 'isfolder', before we
change the underlying behavior of 'isdir'.

We may also move 'isdir' to the scripts/legacy directory as part of this,
since it is "not recommended" by Matlab.




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