Re: [Chicken-hackers] [PATCH 3/4] Remove ##sys#expand-home-path.

[Mario Domenech Goulart]

Hi,

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:44:24 +0100 Peter Bex <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 07:58:02AM +0100, Florian Zumbiehl wrote:
>> Remove ##sys#expand-home-path as shell expansion has no place in a filesystem
>> API.
>
> I've moved the ~ behaviour to a new procedure in "utils" called "ep" and
> updated the NEWS file and docs.
>
> The signed off patch is attached.
>
> I'm not 100% sure how to handle this, as it's a backwards-incompatible
> change.  Pushing it as-is could possibly cause breakage in existing
> programs, but it will also fix programs that don't knowingly rely on
> this behaviour.
>
> BTW: This behaviour isn't really compatible with the shell's, since it
> disallows strings formatted like ~username from being expanded to that
> user's homedir.  The shell would expand ~ to the current user's homedir
> only in a string where it's immediately succeeded by a slash, like ~/foo.
> This will now expand to the current user's homedir with foo pasted at
> the end, like "/home/peterfoo".  I don't know if this is a bug or
> intended behaviour, so I kept it the way it was before.

Thanks.  Attached is the patch amended with the following changes:

- Manual: remove "Pathnames expansion" section from the "Extensions to
  the standard" chapter

- Remove some trailing whitespaces from the new code

- Mention ep in the commit log

- Fix tests that check the ~-expansion

I haven't pushed this patch, since we don't have a consensus on how to
handle this issue and since it is possible that the fix for it will
cause some breakage.  So, I'm afraid we should file a change request.

Here is a summary of options I've collected from this thread:

a. Keep ##sys#expand-home-path, but remove the environment variable
   expansion.  Keep the ~-expansion.

b. Drop ##sys#expand-home-path.  Do not implicitly expand ~ and
   environment variables in pathnames.  Provide a procedure to expand ~
   in pathnames.  That's what this patch implements.

c. Drop ##sys#expand-home-path.  Do not implicitly expand ~ and
   environment variables in pathnames.  Provide an egg to implement the
   old behavior of the procedures from the filesystem API.

Any other relevant options?

If you think a CR is required, I can create one.

Best wishes.
Mario
-- 
http://parenteses.org/mario

0001-Remove-sys-expand-home-path.patch
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