comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive
Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado

Home » Public Forums » archive » Re: Problem with "~" in Unix FINDFILE, still?
Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator
E-mail to friend 
Switch to threaded view of this topic Create a new topic Submit Reply
Re: Problem with "~" in Unix FINDFILE, still? [message #2311] Thu, 09 June 1994 08:36
dnguyen is currently offline  dnguyen
Messages: 4
Registered: May 1994
Junior Member
In article <1994Jun8.120922@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu>, pendleton@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu (Jim Pendleton) says:
>
> Could someone verify the following Unix IDL "bug" for me in a more recent
> version of IDL than 3.0.0?
>
> The problem I am seeing is that the FINDFILE function doesn't properly
> interpret a "~" as a symbol for the home directory.
.....

> produces output as I would expect. Note that the use of a "." for current
> directory rather than a "~" does work properly.

To bypass this "bug", I use $HOME to represent my home directory.
For example:

IDL> PRINT,FINDFILE("$HOME | grep filename")
Re: Problem with "~" in Unix FINDFILE, still? [message #2314 is a reply to message #2311] Thu, 09 June 1994 03:42 Go to previous message
knipp is currently offline  knipp
Messages: 68
Registered: January 1993
Member
In article 120922@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu, pendleton@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu (Jim Pendleton) writes:
> Could someone verify the following Unix IDL "bug" for me in a more recent
> version of IDL than 3.0.0?
>
> The problem I am seeing is that the FINDFILE function doesn't properly
> interpret a "~" as a symbol for the home directory.
>
...

Unfortunately my version is just slightle "more recent" than yours
(SunOs, IDL 3.1.1), but I can confirm that "bug".

What I do to overcome that is to test every filename in the following
way:

- starting with '~'
> change to getenv('HOME')

- starting with '$XYZ'
> change to getenv('XYZ')

- starting with neither '.' nor '/'
> search along IDL_PATH for appropiate file

I've coded the tests in a routine. If someone's interested I'll
post/-email that routine.

Karlheinz

____________________________________________________________ __________________
__ ____ __
/ // _ \ / / Karlheinz Knipp phone: +49 511 - 762 4922
/ // /_/ // / University of Hannover fax: +49 511 - 762 2483
/ // ____// / Institute for Photogrammetry
/ // / / / Nienburger Str.1
/_//_/ /_/ FRG 30167 Hannover e-mail: knipp@ipi.uni-hannover.de
Re: Problem with "~" in Unix FINDFILE, still? [message #2318 is a reply to message #2314] Thu, 09 June 1994 06:54 Go to previous message
robijn is currently offline  robijn
Messages: 18
Registered: June 1994
Junior Member
In article <1994Jun8.120922@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu>,
Jim Pendleton <pendleton@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu> wrote:
> Could someone verify the following Unix IDL "bug" for me in a more recent
> version of IDL than 3.0.0?
>
> The problem I am seeing is that the FINDFILE function doesn't properly
> interpret a "~" as a symbol for the home directory.
>
It is not a bug - the documentation for IDL 3.5 clearly states that the
Bourne shell (/bin/sh) is used. "~" is a csh feature and can't be used.
Use '$HOME' instead.

Frank
--
_____ ____
/ / / Frank Robijn Internet: Robijn@Strw.LeidenUniv.NL
/___ /___/ Sterrewacht Leiden Bitnet: Robijn@HLERUL51
/ / \ Phone (31) 71 275841 Local: Robijn@HL628
/ / \ Fax : (31) 71 275819 Snail: P.O.Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden,
The Netherlands
Re: Problem with "~" in Unix FINDFILE, still? [message #2322 is a reply to message #2314] Thu, 09 June 1994 06:04 Go to previous message
thompson is currently offline  thompson
Messages: 584
Registered: August 1991
Senior Member
pendleton@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu (Jim Pendleton) writes:

> Could someone verify the following Unix IDL "bug" for me in a more recent
> version of IDL than 3.0.0?

> The problem I am seeing is that the FINDFILE function doesn't properly
> interpret a "~" as a symbol for the home directory.

> For instance

> IDL> A = FINDFILE("-F ~ | grep /")

> results in zero entries for me in both Ultrix and SunOS versions of IDL 3.0.0.

> However,

> IDL> SPAWN, "ls -F ~ | grep /", OUTPUT
> IDL> PRINT, OUTPUT

> produces output as I would expect. Note that the use of a "." for current
> directory rather than a "~" does work properly.

I'm not sure that one can describe it as a *bug* exactly. :^) The ~ symbol is
a function of the C shell (and some others such as tcsh and ksh). However, the
Bourne shell does not appear to recognize ~ as $HOME. Probably, IDL spawns out
to the Bourne shell to find files.

These days, though, most people use some other shell than the Bourne shell. It
would be nice if IDL interpreted ~ as they expect it to. I never thought to
try something as fancy as Jim Pendleton did, but I would expect to be able to
say something like

IDL> A = FINDFILE('~/*.dat')

Bill Thompson
Re: Problem with "~" in Unix FINDFILE, still? [message #2325 is a reply to message #2314] Thu, 09 June 1994 03:18 Go to previous message
knipp is currently offline  knipp
Messages: 68
Registered: January 1993
Member
In article 120922@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu, pendleton@ossenu.astro.nwu.edu (Jim Pendleton) writes:
> Could someone verify the following Unix IDL "bug" for me in a more recent
> version of IDL than 3.0.0?
>
> The problem I am seeing is that the FINDFILE function doesn't properly
> interpret a "~" as a symbol for the home directory.
>
...

Unfortunately the "more recent version" of mine is just 3.1.1 (SunOs), but
I can comform that "bug".

Anyway, each filename I define I test on the following:

starts with '~'
--> change to getenv('HOME')
starts with '$XYZ'
--> change to getenv('XYZ')
starts with neither '.' nor '/'
--> serach along IDLPATH for file


If someone is interested I'll post/e-mail the routine performing the
described tests.

Karlheinz

____________________________________________________________ __________________
__ ____ __
/ // _ \ / / Karlheinz Knipp phone: +49 511 - 762 4922
/ // /_/ // / University of Hannover fax: +49 511 - 762 2483
/ // ____// / Institute for Photogrammetry
/ // / / / Nienburger Str.1
/_//_/ /_/ FRG 30167 Hannover e-mail: knipp@ipi.uni-hannover.de
  Switch to threaded view of this topic Create a new topic Submit Reply
Previous Topic: IDL and NIS - cd?
Next Topic: Elementary image question

-=] Back to Top [=-
[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [ RSS ] [ PDF ]

Current Time: Wed Oct 08 15:32:56 PDT 2025

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.00623 seconds