comparison lispref/files.texi @ 75476:330094c564c4

(File Attributes): UID and GID can be floats. (Magic File Names): Explain why deferring all operations to the standard handler does not work.

75475:688a9d290d4d

The number of names the file has.  Alternate names, also known as hard
links, can be created by using the @code{add-name-to-file} function
(@pxref{Changing Files}).

@item
The file's @acronym{UID} as a string or an integer.  If a string
value cannot be looked up, the integer value is returned.

@item
The file's @acronym{GID} likewise.

@item
The time of last access, as a list of two integers.
The first integer has the high-order 16 bits of time,
the second has the low 16 bits.  (This is similar to the

  If the specified file name matches more than one handler, the one
whose match starts last in the file name gets precedence.  This rule
is chosen so that handlers for jobs such as uncompression are handled
first, before handlers for jobs such as remote file access.

Here are the operations that a magic file name handler gets to handle:

@ifnottex
@noindent
@code{access-file}, @code{add-name-to-file},
@code{byte-compiler-base-file-name},@*

operations; then only those operations will call the handler.  This
avoids inefficiency, but its main purpose is for autoloaded handler
functions, so that they won't be loaded except when they have real
work to do.

@defvar inhibit-file-name-handlers
This variable holds a list of handlers whose use is presently inhibited
for a certain operation.
@end defvar

75476:330094c564c4

The number of names the file has.  Alternate names, also known as hard
links, can be created by using the @code{add-name-to-file} function
(@pxref{Changing Files}).

@item
The file's @acronym{UID}, normally as a string.  However, if it does
not correspond to a named user, the value is an integer or a floating
point number.

@item
The file's @acronym{GID}, likewise.

@item
The time of last access, as a list of two integers.
The first integer has the high-order 16 bits of time,
the second has the low 16 bits.  (This is similar to the

  If the specified file name matches more than one handler, the one
whose match starts last in the file name gets precedence.  This rule
is chosen so that handlers for jobs such as uncompression are handled
first, before handlers for jobs such as remote file access.

  Here are the operations that a magic file name handler gets to handle:

@ifnottex
@noindent
@code{access-file}, @code{add-name-to-file},
@code{byte-compiler-base-file-name},@*

operations; then only those operations will call the handler.  This
avoids inefficiency, but its main purpose is for autoloaded handler
functions, so that they won't be loaded except when they have real
work to do.

  Simply deferring all operations to the usual primitives does not
work.  For instance, if the file name handler applies to
@code{file-exists-p}, then it must handle @code{load} itself, because
the usual @code{load} code won't work properly in that case.  However,
if the handler uses the @code{operations} property to say it doesn't
handle @code{file-exists-p}, then it need not handle @code{load}
nontrivially.

@defvar inhibit-file-name-handlers
This variable holds a list of handlers whose use is presently inhibited
for a certain operation.
@end defvar