On Friday 04 July 2003 9:27 am, Frederic Crozat honored me with this communique: > On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 15:24:37 +0200, Guillaume Rousse wrote: > > Ainsi parlait Per �yvind Karlsen : > >> --=-=-= > >> > >> * Fri Jul 04 2003 Per �yvind Karlsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 1.2.9-2mdk > >> > >> - put / at the end of the url after strong wishes from David Walser:) > > > > I've never understood why so many people included a final / when citing > > an URL. Could you explain why ? > > Because it is the correct way to form an URL : > > http://foobar/foo/bar should grab file bar in foo directory > > http://foobar/foo/bar/ should grab index file in bar directory.. > > Many web servers do a redirection when first case doesn't apply and > 'bar' directory exist.. But it is BAD :)
The trailing "/" is especially important (in general) because if you run "ls" on a directory name that is actually just a link to another directory, you don't get the contents of that directory - just the name of the link. This little feature bites me all the time in Solaris (at work) because I have a number of links set up this way to make it easier for me to cd to my userware directories (I write a lot of scripts, etc. that I want others to be able to access - but I don't want other users to be able to have access to my /home subdirectories, so I put them in a semi-public location and put my own links in /home/usr). I am forever forgetting the trailing "/". However, it is still easier for me to type ~/usr/<linkname>/ than to type something like /data/mgc_arch/cust/etc/mgc_tk/en/userware/<dirname>. Yes, in my opinion it is bad to leave off the trailing "/". Sorry about the windy explanation! Jay -- Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
