Subject: Re: bug#18891: Doesn't handle pwd = /C: very well

From: Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 10:39:14 -0500

>>> I guess Tramp could check if there's matching local dir and pass the
>>> request through untouched if there is.
>> If Tramp did that, how would the user tell Tramp that it should access
>> the remote host, even though there is a matching local file?  (The
>> converse situation can be handled with /: quoting.)

It could use an alternative syntax.  E.g. /ssh:C:. or /ssh:c:~ or
/ssh:c.mydomain.org: , you name it.

It seems like a sufficiently oddball case (after all, the current
assumption is that such conflicts never happen).

> Indeed. And there are even cases where checking a local dir wouldn't work:
> (make-directory "/C:/foo/bar/baz" t)

I don't see what's different, unless you were thinking of checking the
existence of "/C:/foo/bar/baz" whereas I'd only want to check the
existence of the "root", i.e. "/C:".

> After all, I believe the use case (local file name, which looks like a
> remote one) isn't relevant enough to add ugly hacks.

Agreed.  This said, I'm in favor of deprecating the "/<host>:" syntax in
favor of "/<method>:<host>:", which should make the possibility of such
conflicts even more remote (pun intended).

        Stefan