On 8/31/16 Aug 31 -11:26 AM, Kevin Layer wrote: > Jason Miller wrote: > >>> On 09:48 Mon 29 Aug , Kevin Layer wrote: >>>> I've avoided getting into this discussion, but I feel I need to ask: >>>> why use *load-truename* instead of *load-pathname*? >>>> >>>> *load-truename* goes through symbolic links (even though the ANS says >>>> nothing about it, this is the behavior of implementations I know of) >>>> and that is almost always the wrong thing. GNU make doesn't do it, I >>>> don't see why ASDF should do it. A build system should never itself >>>> follow symlinks, because it defeats systems that have been in place >>>> for 30+ years: linked directories of binary files linking to a single >>>> source directory. >>> Somewhat off-topic, but I'll bite: >>> >>> This is because *load-pathname* is likely to be a relative >>> pathname, .. > > This is certainly not true in Allegro. In lisps where it is true, > it's easily fixable with (merge-pathnames *load-pathname*). >
I suppose this is safe, but I always have an unpleasant feeling about using a function call like this that depends on the value of a special variable (*default-pathname-defaults*) that I don't control. At any rate, we pretty much established that in an ASDF-loaded system, *load-pathname* is likely to be garbagy, because at load time it typically holds the pathname of the *RELOCATED* FASL file, which is of no use to anyone. best, r
