[Python-Dev] os.path function for “get the real filename” (was: os.path.normcase rationale?) (original) (raw)

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Sat Sep 25 01:15:25 CEST 2010

Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> writes:

Maybe we could use a heuristic such as:

Your heuristics seem to assume there will only ever be a maximum of one match, which is false. I present the following example:

$ ls foo/
    bAr.dat  BaR.dat  bar.DAT

1) Search the directory for an exact match to the name given, return it if found.

And what if there are also matches for a case-insensitive search? e.g. searching for ‘foo/bar.DAT’ in the above example.

2) Look for a match ignoring case. If one is found, test it to see if it refers to the same file as the given path, and if so return it.

And what if several matches are found? e.g. searching for ‘foo/BAR.DAT’ in the above example.

3) Otherwise, raise an exception.

It seems to me this whole thing should be hashed out on ‘python-ideas’.

-- \ “In case you haven't noticed, [the USA] are now almost as | `\ feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.” —Kurt | o_) Vonnegut, 2004 | Ben Finney

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