Possible DIRanomaly

Ruby
1

Hi,
If you see DEFINITION of DIR[""] and DIR["*"] below it suggests there
should be some difference.
But if I run the CODE below I find they produce exactly the same output.
Is my documentation wrong or what am I doing wrong?
What would you think ’ Matches subdirectories recursively’ means?

Cheers, Mike

CODE

list = Dir["**"]
list.sort!
puts(list)

list = Dir["*"]
list.sort!
puts(list)

##########
DEFINITION
##########
Dir[ aString ] -> anArray
Returns anArray of filenames found by expanding the pattern given in
aString. Note that this pattern is not a regexp (it’s closer to a shell
glob) and may contain the following metacharacters:

** Matches subdirectories recursively

  • Matches zero or more characters
    ? Matches any single character
    [ charSet ] Matches any character from the given set of characters. A
    range of characters is written as charFrom-charTo. The set may be
    negated with an initial uparrow (^).
    { opt, opt, … } Matches any one of the optional strings
2

Mike D. wrote:

##########
[ charSet ] Matches any character from the given set of characters. A
range of characters is written as charFrom-charTo. The set may be
negated with an initial uparrow (^).
{ opt, opt, … } Matches any one of the optional strings

Try Dir[’**/*’], it only applies this way.

T.

3

[email protected] wrote:

? Matches any single character
[ charSet ] Matches any character from the given set of characters. A
range of characters is written as charFrom-charTo. The set may be
negated with an initial uparrow (^).
{ opt, opt, … } Matches any one of the optional strings

Try Dir[’**/*’], it only applies this way.

T.

Thanks a lot.

4

On Sat, 15 Jul 2006 [email protected] wrote:

Try Dir[’**/*’], it only applies this way.

i’ve settled on

Dir[’/’]

myself. anyone know the details on this poorly doccumented subject?

regards.

-a

5

On Saturday 15 July 2006 08:29, [email protected] wrote:

On Sat, 15 Jul 2006 [email protected] wrote:

Try Dir[’**/*’], it only applies this way.

i’ve settled on

Dir[’/’]

myself. anyone know the details on this poorly doccumented
subject?

I use Dir[’**/*’].

Generally I use a pattern of the form “/**/”
to tell Ruby: “Give me all file names under and all
its subdirectories (recursively) that match .”

6

Mike D. wrote:

Cheers, Mike
list.sort!
glob) and may contain the following metacharacters:
Try Dir[’**/*’], it only applies this way.

T.

using “/*" doesn’t seem to get all dirs, it misses the hidden ones
do you know the logic behind "/" or "/" ?
Cheers Mike
The convention in file globbing is always to ignore the hidden files,
unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Also, the documentation explicitly says that “**” match recursively the
/directories/, when "” match any /files/.
But looking at the documentation, and mainly this bit:

librbfiles = File.join("", “lib”, "", “*.rb”)
Dir.glob(libdirs)

Make me wonder if anybody had proposed to use the operator / for joining
files component.
A recent addition to Python is a class that inherit string but with all
the facilities for paths (i.e. globbing, listing, joining, …) and I
must say it is very convenient. The previous two lines could be written
something like:

librbfiles = Path.new("")/“lib”/""/"*.rb"
librbfiles.glob

I think I will write it and post it here so that you may have a feeling
for what it can (or cannot) do.

Pierre

7

[email protected] wrote:

? Matches any single character
[ charSet ] Matches any character from the given set of characters. A
range of characters is written as charFrom-charTo. The set may be
negated with an initial uparrow (^).
{ opt, opt, … } Matches any one of the optional strings

Try Dir[’**/*’], it only applies this way.

T.

using “/*" doesn’t seem to get all dirs, it misses the hidden ones
do you know the logic behind "/" or "/*” ?
Cheers Mike

8

Hi,

At Sun, 16 Jul 2006 18:20:31 +0900,
Pierre Barbier de Reuille wrote in [ruby-talk:202214]:

librbfiles = File.join("", “lib”, "", “*.rb”)
Dir.glob(libdirs)

You can do this on all platforms:

Dir.glob("/lib//*.rb")

9

Pierre Barbier de Reuille wrote:

I think I will write it and post it here so that you may have a feeling
for what it can (or cannot) do.

Like this?

http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/pathname/rdoc/classes/Pathname.html

10

On Sunday 16 July 2006 02:00, Mike D. wrote:

[email protected] wrote:
[…]

Try Dir[’**/*’], it only applies this way.

T.

using “/*" doesn’t seem to get all dirs, it misses the hidden
ones do you know the logic behind "/" or "/*” ?

Use:
Dir.glob("**/*", File::FNM_DOTMATCH)

Dir[patttern] is just a shortcut for Dir.glob(pattern, 0).
Just read “ri Dir.[]” and “ri Dir.glob”.

HTH,
Stefan

11

Pierre Barbier de Reuille wrote:

The only thing is, instead of +, IMHO the operator / would make more
sense for joining paths.

+1

Why not add alias to Pathname?

T.

12

Alex Y. wrote:

librbfiles.glob

I think I will write it and post it here so that you may have a feeling
for what it can (or cannot) do.

Like this?

http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/pathname/rdoc/classes/Pathname.html

Indeed ^^
I didn’t yet know half the ruby classes :confused:
The only thing is, instead of +, IMHO the operator / would make more
sense for joining paths.

But ok, it is already existing :slight_smile:

Pierre