diff --git a/gio/ChangeLog b/gio/ChangeLog index 5036ec615..104be9e4f 100644 --- a/gio/ChangeLog +++ b/gio/ChangeLog @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ +2008-02-21 Alexander Larsson + + * gfile.c: + Add more documentation about how GFiles work (from #517086) + 2008-02-21 Alexander Larsson * gfile.[ch]: diff --git a/gio/gfile.c b/gio/gfile.c index f308f6e11..f056864dc 100644 --- a/gio/gfile.c +++ b/gio/gfile.c @@ -46,20 +46,49 @@ * #GFile is a high level abstraction for manipulating files on a * virtual file system. #GFiles are lightweight, immutable * objects that do no I/O upon creation. It is necessary to understand that - * #GFile objects do not represent files, merely a handle to a file. All - * file I/O is implemented as streaming operations (see #GInputStream and + * #GFile objects do not represent files, merely an identifier for a file. All + * file content I/O is implemented as streaming operations (see #GInputStream and * #GOutputStream). - * + * * To construct a #GFile, you can use: * g_file_new_for_path() if you have a path. * g_file_new_for_uri() if you have a URI. * g_file_new_for_commandline_arg() for a command line argument. + * g_file_parse_name() from a utf8 string gotten from g_file_get_parse_name(). * - * You can move through the file system with #GFile handles with - * g_file_get_parent() to get a handle to the parent directory. - * g_file_get_child() to get a handle to a child within a directory. - * g_file_resolve_relative_path() to resolve a relative path between - * two #GFiles. + * One way to think of a #GFile is as an abstraction of a pathname. For normal + * files the system pathname is what is stored interanally, but as #GFiles + * are extensible it could also be something else that corresponds to a pathname + * in a userspace implementation of a filesystem. + * + * #GFiles make up hierarchies of directories and files that correspond to the + * files on a filesystem. You can move through the file system with #GFile using + * g_file_get_parent() to get an identifier for the parent directory, g_file_get_child() + * to get a child within a directory, g_file_resolve_relative_path() to resolve a relative + * path between two #GFiles. There can be multiple hierarchies, so you may not + * end up at the same root if you repeatedly call g_file_get_parent() on two different + * files. + * + * All #GFiles have a basename (get with g_file_get_basename()). These names + * are byte strings that are used to identify the file on the filesystem (relative to + * its parent directory) and there is no guarantees that they have any particular charset + * encoding or even make any sense at all. If you want to use filenames in a user + * interface you should use the display name that you can get by requesting the + * %G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_STANDARD_DISPLAY_NAME attribute with g_file_query_info(). + * This is guaranteed to be in utf8 and can be used in a user interface. But always + * store the real basename or the #GFile to use to actually access the file, because + * there is no way to go from a display name to the actual name. + * + * Using #GFile as an indetifier has the same weaknesses as using an path in that + * there may be multiple aliases for the same file. For instance, hard or + * soft links may cause two different #GFiles to refer to the same file. + * Other possible causes for aliases are: case insensitive filesystems, short + * and long names on Fat/NTFS, or bind mounts in linux. If you want to check if + * two #GFiles point to the same file you can query for the + * %G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE attribute. Note that #GFile does some trivial + * canonicalization of pathnames passed in, so that trivial differences in the + * path string used at creation (dupplicated slashes, slash at end of path, "." + * or ".." path segments, etc) does not create different #GFiles. * * Many #GFile operations have both synchronous and asynchronous versions * to suit your application. Asynchronous versions of synchronous functions @@ -355,9 +384,15 @@ g_file_get_uri_scheme (GFile *file) * Gets the base name (the last component of the path) for a given #GFile. * * If called for the top level of a system (such as the filesystem root - * or a uri like sftp://host/ it will return a single directory separator + * or a uri like sftp://host/) it will return a single directory separator * (and on Windows, possibly a drive letter). * + * The base name is a byte string (*not* UTF-8). It has no defined encoding + * or rules other than it may not contain zero bytes. If you want to use + * filenames in a user interface you should use the display name that you + * can get by requesting the %G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_STANDARD_DISPLAY_NAME + * attribute with g_file_query_info(). + * * This call does no blocking i/o. * * Returns: string containing the #GFile's base name, or %NULL @@ -433,7 +468,8 @@ g_file_get_uri (GFile *file) * g_file_parse_name(). * * This is generally used to show the #GFile as a nice - * string in a user interface, like in a location entry. + * full-pathname kind of string in a user interface, + * like in a location entry. * * For local files with names that can safely be converted * to UTF8 the pathname is used, otherwise the IRI is used @@ -510,7 +546,10 @@ g_file_hash (gconstpointer file) * @file1: the first #GFile. * @file2: the second #GFile. * - * Checks equality of two given #GFiles + * Checks equality of two given #GFiles. Note that two + * #GFiles that differ can still refer to the same + * file on the filesystem due to various forms of filename + * aliasing. * * This call does no blocking i/o. * @@ -563,9 +602,9 @@ g_file_get_parent (GFile *file) /** * g_file_get_child: * @file: input #GFile. - * @name: string containing the child's name. + * @name: string containing the child's basename. * - * Gets a specific child of @file with name equal to @name. + * Gets a child of @file with basename equal to @name. * * Note that the file with that specific name might not exist, but * you can still have a #GFile that points to it. You can use this @@ -646,7 +685,7 @@ g_file_contains_file (GFile *parent, * @prefix: input #GFile. * * Checks whether @file has the prefix specified by @prefix. In other word, if the - * inital elements of @files pathname match @prefix. + * names of inital elements of @files pathname match @prefix. * * This call does no i/o, as it works purely on names. As such it can sometimes * return %FALSE even if @file is inside a @prefix (from a filesystem point of view), @@ -683,7 +722,7 @@ g_file_has_prefix (GFile *file, * This call does no blocking i/o. * * Returns: string with the relative path from @descendant - * to @parent, or %NULL if @descendant is not a descendant of @parent. The returned string should be freed with + * to @parent, or %NULL if @descendant doesn't have @parent as prefix. The returned string should be freed with * g_free() when no longer needed. **/ char *