[Python-Dev] Updates to PEP 471, the os.scandir() proposal

[Tim Delaney]

On 10 July 2014 10:23, Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2014-07-09 17:26 GMT+02:00 Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com>:
> > On 9 July 2014 16:05, Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> The PEP says that DirEntry should mimic pathlib.Path, so I think that
> >> DirEntry.is_dir() should work as os.path.isir(): if the entry is a
> >> symbolic link, you should follow the symlink to get the status of the
> >> linked file with os.stat().
> >
> > (...)
> > As a Windows user with only a superficial understanding of how
> > symlinks should behave, (...)
>
> FYI Windows also supports symbolic links since Windows Vista. The
> feature is unknown because it is restricted to the administrator
> account. Try the "mklink" command in a terminal (cmd.exe) ;-)
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link
>
> ... To be honest, I never created a symlink on Windows. But since it
> is supported, you need to know it to write correctly your Windows
> code.
>

Personally, I create them all the time on Windows - mainly via  the Link
Shell Extension <
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html>. It's
the easiest way to ensure that my directory structures are as I want them
whilst not worrying about where the files really are e.g. code on SSD,
GB+-sized data files on rusty metal, symlinks makes it look like it's the
same directory structure. Same thing can be done with junctions if you're
only dealing with directories, but symlinks work with files as well.

I work cross-platform, and have a mild preference for option #2 with
similar semantics on all platforms.

Tim Delaney
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