Hi,

Just curious.

Given a situation where FindFirst/FindNext returns 0 (=succes), under which circumstance can the TSearchRec.Name become an empty string?

I'm asking because we have code in our codebase (fpc/lazarus) like:

=======
  if FindFirst(CurSrcDir+AllFilesMask,DeleteMask,FileInfo)=0 then
    Try
      repeat
        // check if special file
        if (FileInfo.Name='.') or (FileInfo.Name='..') or
(FileInfo.Name='') then
          continue;
========

Never saw that on Windows or Linux, but since fpc supports more platforms, maybe some of them may return an ampty string for TSearchRec.Name?

under which circumstance can the TSearchRec.Name become an empty string?

Only under situation of currupted file system on Unix like systems, where os trusts the empty filename. It never happens in real life. It was a defensive peogramming.

Interesting video on weird file names that sometimes are allowed (partially) on Windows, MacOS, Linux:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX5XHjFp6UQ

Doug C.

I don't pretend knowing behaviour of all platforms supported by FPC, but I don't think that it should happen. However, you don't show the end of the repeat until cycle - depending on the exact condition there, the check might be relevant for the repetitions (not that I'd expect it, just for completeness sake).

Tomas

However, you don't show the end of the repeat until cycle - depending on the exact condition there, the check might be relevant for the repetitions (not that I'd expect it, just for completeness sake).

The rest of the code is just iignored in that case:

====
      repeat
        // check if special file
        if (FileInfo.Name='.') or (FileInfo.Name='..') or
(FileInfo.Name='') then
          continue;
        //handle file or dir
      until {$IFDEF
FPC_DOTTEDUNITS}System.{$ENDIF}SysUtils.FindNext(FileInfo)0;
====

Indeed, then it cannot make any difference either because FindNext is checked to be 0 there as well.

Tomas

Indeed, then it cannot make any difference either because FindNext is checked to be 0 there as well.

Example code taken from function DeleteDirectory in systm.ioutils unit. (Possibly a copy of the same code in Lazarus, or vice versa.)

Well, it won't harm either...