[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #58118] canonicalize_file_name doesn't not return empty for non-existent files

[Philip Nienhuis]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?58118>

                 Summary: canonicalize_file_name doesn't not return empty for
non-existent files
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: philipnienhuis
            Submitted on: Sun 05 Apr 2020 03:54:20 PM CEST
                Category: Octave Function
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: None
                  Status: None
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Philip Nienhuis
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
                 Release: 6.0.90
         Discussion Lock: Any
        Operating System: Any

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Details:

Title says it all IMO, but to make it extra clear:


>> help canonicalize_file_name
'canonicalize_file_name' is a built-in function from the file
libinterp/corefcn/syscalls.cc

 -- [CNAME, STATUS, MSG] = canonicalize_file_name (FNAME)
     Return the canonical name of file FNAME.

     If the file does not exist the empty string ("") is returned.


In Octave 6.0.1 and 7.0.0, under Linux and Windows,

>> dir A.m
A.m
>> exist ('A.m', 'file')
ans = 2
>> canonicalize_file_name ('A.m')
ans = C:\tmp\A.m

>> dir B.m
warning: dir: nonexistent directory 'B.m'
warning: called from
    dir at line 193 column 5

>> exist ('B.m', 'file')
ans = 0
>> canonicalize_file_name ('B.m')
ans = B.m
>>


This is working fine in Octave-5.2.0 and all previous releases.

Slightly OT:
dir.m, which does accept file names as input, apparently assumes a nonexistent
specified file to always be a directory, where it may better say something
more neutral along the lines of "<specified file name>: nonexistent". But
that's just a minor inconsistency.





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