Re: colon in file names for maildir
Re: colon in file names for maildir
- Subject: Re: colon in file names for maildir
- From: "Alastair J.Houghton" <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 22:06:09 +0100
On Wednesday, June 25, 2003, at 07:55 am, Wade Tregaskis wrote:
I am implementing (or finishing the implementation of) the maildir
spec in GNUMail.app, and the canonical spec says to name the mail
file "unique_pattern:info". Note the colon character in the name. Now
is this going to create problems on HFS+, the default FS on OS X? All
the apps I tried do not allow me to save a file name with a colon in
it, but can I do it programmatically? Might I run into problems
later? Anyone know how the other maildir capable mail clients deal
with it?
From memory you can put a colon in a file name, and it will work for
the most part. But some older Carbon path-based functions will have
headaches. So you shouldn't, in short. There may be some way of
escaping the colon, but failing that you should use some other
delimiter.
There's nothing inherently wrong with using a ':' in a filename on OS
X. The POSIX functions and Cocoa will work just fine. Carbon will
work OK too, but you have to remember to refer to the file as
"unique_pattern/info" when using it from Carbon, because Carbon uses
':' as its directory separator.
The only reason for not using ':' (or '/' if you're writing a Carbon
app) in a filename is that it can be confusing for the user, because
the name of the file will change depending on which program they're
using. However, in the case you cite, that isn't an issue, so you
needn't worry about it... just implement the spec. using the POSIX or
Cocoa APIs.
Kind regards,
Alastair.
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