[Python-Dev] Special file "nul" in Windows and os.stat

[Scott Dial]

Fred Drake wrote:
> It's special, but in a different way.  /dev/null really exists in the  
> Unix filesystem; "nul" is more magical than that.
> 
> What's more, it has peers: "prn", "com1" and others like that.
> 

For the record, the fixed names 'aux', 'con', 'nul', and 'prn' along 
with the set of 'com[0-9]' and 'lpt[0-9]' names that are reserved. And 
for that matter, any of those with an extension is reserved as well. 
These files always exist as far as I am concerned (where existence is 
defined by your ability to open() them).

def is_special_on_win32(name):
     import os.path, re
     name = os.path.basename(name)
     return (re.match('(nul|prn|aux|con|com[0-9]|lpt[0-9])(\..*)?$',
                      name) is not None)

-- 
Scott Dial
scott at scottdial.com
scodial at cs.indiana.edu