Greetings! Yes, this has been an ansi change pushed into 2.6 to accomodate axiom, mainly. The spec at least appears to indicate that this function should be specific to files, though I think Paul has decided that it is vague enough not to force an error in his test suite. In any case, there appears to be no standard function (barring this reading) which enables one to distinguish a file from a directory. How then might one write, for example, a little web server on a socket which will copy files across, but not attempt to open directories? It was decided to therefore use probe-file to indicate a true file, and the output of 'directory and the various pathname functions to indicate directories. clisp does similar, if memory serves.
truename won't work if you need to avoid error on missing pathnames, but will otherwise. In general, it was felt at the time that the spec was unsatisfactory on this point, so we have also supplied a gcl specific function, (si::stat ...), which distinguishes files from directories, gives the size, and the inode, at present. Please let me know if any of this is a problem for you. Take care, Matt Kaufmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Hi -- > > I've always been able to use probe-file to see if a directory exists, > but that doesn't seem to be working on a 64-bit linux machine, in GCL > 2.6.7 CLtL1 or (a version of) 2.7.0 ANSI. Any suggestions? The > following log shows that probe-file is returning nil for a directory > that clearly exists. > > lhug-1:/projects/acl2/devel> ~boyer/bin-override/5 > GCL (GNU Common Lisp) 2.7.0 ANSI Dec 5 2006 20:38:58 > Source License: LGPL(gcl,gmp,pargcl), GPL(unexec,bfd,xgcl) > Binary License: GPL due to GPL'ed components: (XGCL READLINE BFD UNEXEC) > Modifications of this banner must retain notice of a compatible license > Dedicated to the memory of W. Schelter > > Use (help) to get some basic information on how to use GCL. > > Temporary directory for compiler files set to /tmp/ > > >(probe-file "/projects/acl2/devel/books/") > > NIL > > >(probe-file "/projects/acl2/devel/books") > > NIL > > >(probe-file "/projects/acl2/devel/books/certify-numbers.lisp") > > #P"/v/filer3/v0q004/acl2/devel/books/certify-numbers.lisp" > > > > > Thanks -- > -- Matt > > > -- Camm Maguire [EMAIL PROTECTED] ========================================================================== "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." -- Baha'u'llah _______________________________________________ Gcl-devel mailing list Gcl-devel@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gcl-devel
