Re: Win32 File tests, pathnames

You shouldn't need to quote \ in config files. It is only when Perl is parsing quoted strings in its source that the quoting is needed. Consider:

use strict;
use warnings;

print "Quoted \\ required here, its in a string\n";
print <DATA>;

__DATA__
This \ doesn't need to be quoted.
[download]

Prints:

Quoted \ required here, its in a string
This \ doesn't need to be quoted.
[download]

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

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Re^2: Win32 File tests, pathnames by bowei_99 (Friar) on Apr 06, 2006 at 00:14 UTC
I realize I don't have to escape a \ in a config file, but it gets messy converting it back and forth when writing it to and reading it from the config file. In other words, if I read in the value `C:\filename` from a config file, I have to add another \ when using it as `$filename = "C:\\filename"`, and when writing the value `"C:\\filename"` back to the config file, I need to take out the extra \ again. This, to me, adds extra bulk to the application and makes it less maintainable and robust, e.g. easy to break due to typos. -- Burvil	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Win32 File tests, pathnames by GrandFather (Saint) on Apr 06, 2006 at 00:19 UTC
That simply doesn't make sense to me. Show us some code that demonstrates the problem. Tip: see I know what I mean. Why don't you? for ways to make your sample code self contained. DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel	[reply]
Re^4: Win32 File tests, pathnames by bowei_99 (Friar) on Apr 06, 2006 at 01:55 UTC
Well, I put together some sample code, and OK, it reads a pathname with single slashes, and seems to run it ok, except for a 'Can't spawn "filename-here" No error" after executing the command. What I was getting at was that, since so many of the docs for Win32 modules have double slashes instead of single slashes, if I were to follow that convention, I'd have to convert back and forth between single and double slashes. An example, taken from from the Win32::AdminMisc FAQ: `Win32::AdminMisc::ComputerAliasAdd( '\\\\Server1', 'fred' );` [download] and another example from the Win32::FileOp page: `Substed 'A:' => ('','Floppy0') Substed 'B:' => undef Substed 'C:' => ('','Harddisk0\Partition1') Substed 'H:' => ('\\\\servername\homes\username','UNC') # set by subst H: \\servername\homes\username Substed 'S:' => ('\\\\servername\servis','LanmanRedirector') # set by net use S: \\servername\servis Substed 'X:' => () # not mapped to anything` [download] You will notice that these, and other cases, have four slashes, not two, at the beginning of a UNC path. So, basically, I'm worried that somewhere along the line, I'll get the two mixed up. A potential ramification here is that the config file could be written with four slashes and not two for a UNC path. Of course, there are other bugs that could pop up, too... -- Burvil	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^5: Win32 File tests, pathnames by GrandFather (Saint) on Apr 06, 2006 at 02:17 UTC
Re^2: Win32 File tests, pathnames by salva (Canon) on Apr 06, 2006 at 09:23 UTC
You shouldn't need to quote \ in config files well, it depends on the format of the configuration file. Some use the backslash as a way to introduce special sequences and characters (for instance Java property files).	[reply]