Generating generations of files

[Eli the Bearded]

In comp.lang.python, Peter J. Holzer <hjp-python at hjp.at> wrote:
> On 2019-04-29 20:12:28 -0000, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> Well, the FILES-11 filesystem on VAX/VMS did that automatically, but
>> that's probably not too helpful.
> Until this is finished you could use something like this:
> 
> #!/usr/bin/python3
> 
> import os
> 
> def open11(file, mode, **kwargs):
>     if "w" in mode:
>         try:
>             oldfile = os.readlink(file)
>             basename, version = oldfile.split(";")
>         except FileNotFoundError:
>             basename = os.path.basename(file)
>             version = 0
>         newfile = basename + ";" + str(int(version) + 1)
>         os.unlink(file)
>         os.symlink(newfile, file)
>     return open(file, mode, **kwargs)
> 
> 
> if __name__ == "__main__":
>     with open11("foo", "w") as f:
>         f.write("test1")
> 
>     with open11("foo", "w") as f:
>         f.write("test2")
> 
>     with open11("foo", "w") as f:
>         f.write("test3")
> 
> :-)

Noted.

> (WARNING: I haven't really tested this)

No foo:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "versioned-open", line 21, in <module>
    with open11("foo", "w") as f:
  File "versioned-open", line 15, in open11
    os.unlink(file)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'foo'

There is a foo, but it's not a symlink:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "versioned-open", line 21, in <module>
    with open11("foo", "w") as f:
  File "versioned-open", line 9, in open11
    oldfile = os.readlink(file)
OSError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument: 'foo'

Parse error on version string:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "versioned-open", line 21, in <module>
    with open11("foo", "w") as f:
  File "versioned-open", line 10, in open11
    basename, version = oldfile.split(";")
ValueError: not enough values to unpack (expected 2, got 1)

etc (there are several possible parse errors: no semicolon, multiple
semicolons, invalid literal for int()).

That said, I do think it makes a reasonable suggestion for the stated
versioning requirement.

Elijah
------
bet a FAT filesystem would produce a different error