Searching for a safe alternative to "GetDirs" function

[dbannon]

And it is unix only, since Windows allows both \ and /. So splitting by one character is not enough.

Now, I wondered about that. The OP had a ReadLn; at the end of his/her demo, that is something Windows user use. But the example PATH string is clearly a *nix one.  It appears GetDirs uses only the local PathDelim (as it should) so that code will not work under windows.

Anyway, far better practice to use Path.split(PathDelim....

Davo

[marcov]

Now, I wondered about that. The OP had a ReadLn; at the end of his/her demo, that is something Windows user use. But the example PATH string is clearly a *nix one.  It appears GetDirs uses only the local PathDelim (as it should) so that code will not work under windows.

I don't know what code you are looking at (an old dos unit version?), but the sysutils version has a charinset() that checks multiple separators.

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. Function GetDirs (Var DirName : PathStr; Var Dirs : Array of PathPChar) : Longint; {$ifdef FPC_HAS_CPSTRING}rtlproc;{$endif}
2.  
3. Var I : Longint;
4.  
5. begin
6.   I:=1;
7.   Result:=-1;
8.   While I<=Length(DirName) do
9.     begin
10.     If (CharInSet(DirName[i],AllowDirectorySeparators)
11.     {$ifdef HASAMIGA}
12.       or (DirName[i] = DriveSeparator)
13.     {$endif}
14.       ) and
15.        { avoid error in case last AnsiChar=pathdelim }
16.        (length(dirname)>i) then
17.       begin
18.         DirName[i]:=#0;
19.         Inc(Result);
20.         Dirs[Result]:=@DirName[I+1];
21.       end;
22.     Inc(I);
23.     end;
24.   If Result>-1 then inc(Result);
25. end;
26.  

[dbannon]

The docs for GetDirs() says -

DirName must contain only OSDirSeparator as Directory separator chars.

https://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/getdirs.html

Davo

[marcov]

That's probably outdated then.

[dbannon]

Yes, probably.

AllowDirectorySeparators seems to be defined as both forward and back slash.  That is, in my opinion yet another reason to use the string.split() approach. If I used GetDirs() I would want to know that it is going to mess with both slashes, thats quite wrong, it should only operate on the PathDelim character appropriate for that OS. Yes, I know, 99.9% of cases it will not matter but ...

Davo

[Thaddy]

it should only operate on the PathDelim character appropriate for that OS. Yes, I know, 99.9% of cases it will not matter but ...

characters:
As Marcov pointed out already e.g. Windows allows both / and \ at the OS level.

[dbannon]

As Marcov pointed out already e.g. Windows allows both / and \ at the OS level.

Yes Thaddy, but Windows Users like yourself tend to forget that *nix systems only use one. And the other has its own, predefined use.

(At last, we are even, you called me a Windows User several years ago and never apologized.)

Davo