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*default-pathname-defaults* Filenames Dictionary parse-namestring
Function

namestring, file-namestring, directory-namestring, host-namestring, enough-namestring

namestring pathname ⇒ namestring

file-namestring pathname ⇒ namestring

directory-namestring pathname ⇒ namestring

host-namestring pathname ⇒ namestring

enough-namestring pathname &optional defaults ⇒ namestring

Arguments and Values

pathnamea pathname designator.
defaultsa pathname designator. The default is the value of *default-pathname-defaults*.
namestringa string or nil. [Editorial Note by KMP: Under what circumstances can NIL be returned??]

Description

These functions convert pathname into a namestring. The name represented by pathname is returned as a namestring in an implementation-dependent canonical form.

namestring returns the full form of pathname.

file-namestring returns just the name, type, and version components of pathname.

directory-namestring returns the directory name portion.

host-namestring returns the host name.

enough-namestring returns an abbreviated namestring that is just sufficient to identify the file named by pathname when considered relative to the defaults. It is required that 

 (merge-pathnames (enough-namestring pathname defaults) defaults)
≡ (merge-pathnames (parse-namestring pathname nil defaults) defaults)

in all cases, and the result of enough-namestring is the shortest reasonable string that will satisfy this criterion.

It is not necessarily possible to construct a valid namestring by concatenating some of the three shorter namestrings in some order.

Examples

 (namestring "getty")            
⇒  "getty"
 (setq q (make-pathname :host "kathy" 
                         :directory 
                           (pathname-directory *default-pathname-defaults*)
                         :name "getty")) 
⇒  #S(PATHNAME :HOST "kathy" :DEVICE NIL :DIRECTORY directory-name 
       :NAME "getty" :TYPE NIL :VERSION NIL)
 (file-namestring q) ⇒  "getty"
 (directory-namestring q) ⇒  directory-name
 (host-namestring q) ⇒  "kathy" 


 ;;;Using Unix syntax and the wildcard conventions used by the
 ;;;particular version of Unix on which this example was created:
 (namestring
   (translate-pathname "/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l"
                       "/usr/d*/hacks/*.l"
                       "/usr/d*/backup/hacks/backup-*.*"))
⇒  "/usr/dmr/backup/hacks/backup-frob.l"
 (namestring
   (translate-pathname "/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l"
                       "/usr/d*/hacks/fr*.l"
                       "/usr/d*/backup/hacks/backup-*.*"))
⇒  "/usr/dmr/backup/hacks/backup-ob.l"

 ;;;This is similar to the above example but uses two different hosts,
 ;;;U: which is a Unix and V: which is a VMS.  Note the translation
 ;;;of file type and alphabetic case conventions.
 (namestring
   (translate-pathname "U:/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l"
                       "U:/usr/d*/hacks/*.l"
                       "V:SYS$DISK:[D*.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-*.*"))
⇒  "V:SYS$DISK:[DMR.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-FROB.LSP"
 (namestring
   (translate-pathname "U:/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l"
                       "U:/usr/d*/hacks/fr*.l"
                       "V:SYS$DISK:[D*.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-*.*"))
⇒  "V:SYS$DISK:[DMR.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-OB.LSP"

See Also

truename, merge-pathnames, pathname, logical-pathname, File System Concepts,

Pathnames as Filenames

Backlinks

close, Filenames Dictionary, Pathnames as Filenames, Stream Arguments to Standardized Functions, Symbols in the COMMON-LISP Package, translate-pathname