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From: et99 <et99@rocketship1.me>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl
Subject: Re: Problems with paths of Windows
Date: Sun, 18 May 2025 12:17:44 -0700
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On 5/18/2025 6:41 AM, Alan Grunwald wrote:
> On 18/05/2025 03:36, Luis Alejandro Muzzachiodi wrote:
>> El 17/05/2025 a las 13:51, saito escribió:
>>> On 5/17/2025 12:37 PM, Luis Alejandro Muzzachiodi wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> I have a procedure that accepts a list of paths.
>>>> Assuming "$::env(SystemRoot)\my dir" is passed as a parameter, is there a way to process this so that it's interpreted correctly in the end?
>>>> I've tried combinations of { }, [list], [file normalize], [file nativename] but that didn't work.
>>>> (Working in Windows, tcl 8.6)
>>>>
>>>
>>> It is not clear what you are asking.
>>>
>>> Are you trying to append a parameter to a list? You do "lappend mylist $parameter"
>>>
>>> Are you trying to modify the Windows path env variable?  It is just a string separated by commas: "append env(path) \;[join $mylist \;]"
>>
>> The question - generalizing - is how (if it is possible) to convert a path into a valid path if passed as a parameter to a procedure in the Windows format, for example, "c:\windows\my dir".
>> The specific question would be:
>> given the following procedure
>> proc myproc { listofpaths } {
>>      foreach p  $listofpaths {
>>          puts "$p - is valid? : [file isdirectory $p]"
>>      }
>> }
>> if a parameter is passed as "$::env(SystemRoot)\my dir"
>> the result obtained is
>> C:Windowsmy - is valid? : 0
>> dir - is valid? : 0
>> Then, is there a way to convert - within the procedure - that input into a valid directory?
>>
>> Alejandro
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
> It seems that the caller is mangling the parameter; it will be too late by the time the proc is entered.
> 
> I suggest you try passing [file join $::env(SystemRoot) "my dir"]. If you feel that lots of up-front, non-portable string manipulation is more readable you might prefer "$::env(SystemRoot)\\my dir".
> 
> Alan


Just to (hopefully) add a little more clarity, one can see why that result occurs, with this:


% puts "$::env(SystemRoot)\my dir"
C:\WINDOWSmy dir

The \m became simply m, because of rule 9, \ followed by something NOT special (like \n), simply removes the \

Then the foreach treats it's input as though lindex were used on each item in a list:

% lindex "$::env(SystemRoot)\my dir" 0
C:WINDOWSmy
% lindex "$::env(SystemRoot)\my dir" 1
dir

Here, you are getting another round of substitution on the \W which likewise removed the \

which all together then, explains why those 2 results showed up.

In the above, one would actually need another \ as so:

% puts "|$::env(SystemRoot)\\my\ dir|"
|C:\WINDOWS\my dir|

with the ||'s added to hopefully add more clarity.

-e