[David Ascher]
A python-help poster finally convinced me that there was a way to enable automatic wildcard expansion on win32. This is done by linking in "setargv.obj" along with all of the other MS libs. Quick testing shows that it works.
Is this a feature we want to add? I can see both sides of that coin.
The only real drawback I see is that we're then under some obligation to document Python's behavior. Which is then inherited from the MS setargv.obj, which is in turn only partially documented in developer-only docs, and incorrectly documented at that.
PS: I saw a RISKS digest posting last week which had a horror story about wildcard expansion on some flavor of Windows. The person had two files with long filenames:
verylongfile1.txt and verylongfile2.txt
But Win32 stored them in 8.3 format, so they were stored as verylo~2.txt and verylo~1.txt
(Yes, the 1 and 2 were swapped!). So when he did
del *1.txt
he removed the wrong file. Neat, eh?
(This is actually relevant -- it's possible that setargv.obj and glob.glob could give different answers).
Yes, and e.g. it works this way under Win95: D:\Python>dir *~* Volume in drive D is DISK1PART2 Volume Serial Number is 1DFF-0F59 Directory of D:\Python PYCLBR~1 PAT 5,765 06-07-99 11:41p pyclbr.patch KJBUCK~1 PYD 34,304 03-31-98 3:07a kjbuckets.pyd WIN32C~1 <DIR> 05-16-99 12:10a win32comext PYTHON~1 <DIR> 05-16-99 12:10a Pythonwin TEXTTO~1 <DIR> 01-15-99 11:35p TextTools UNWISE~1 EXE 109,056 07-03-97 8:35a UnWisePW32.exe 3 file(s) 149,125 bytes 3 dir(s) 1,502,511,104 bytes free Here's the same thing in an argv-spewing console app whipped up to link setargv.obj: D:\Python>garp\debug\garp *~* 0: D:\PYTHON\GARP\DEBUG\GARP.EXE 1: kjbuckets.pyd 2: pyclbr.patch 3: Pythonwin 4: TextTools 5: UnWisePW32.exe 6: win32comext D:\Python> setargv.obj is apparently consistent with what native wildcard expansion does (although you won't find that promise made anywhere!), and it's definitely surprising in the presence of non-8.3 names. The quoting rules too are impossible to explain, seemingly random: D:\Python>garp\debug\garp "\\a\\" 0: D:\PYTHON\GARP\DEBUG\GARP.EXE 1: \\a\ D:\Python> Before I was on the Help list, I used to believe it would work to just say "well, it does what Windows does" <wink>. magnification-of-ignorance-ly y'rs - tim