# HG changeset patch # User Eli Zaretskii # Date 1210409604 0 # Node ID 495ab8e1f81a70ff069186fd9c7a4aad6bf35fa2 # Parent b66f28702d4c5cbd43701148fe20cc562d439df2 (Windows Files): Update documentation of w32-get-true-file-attributes. diff -r b66f28702d4c -r 495ab8e1f81a doc/emacs/msdog.texi --- a/doc/emacs/msdog.texi Sat May 10 08:35:15 2008 +0000 +++ b/doc/emacs/msdog.texi Sat May 10 08:53:24 2008 +0000 @@ -172,11 +172,23 @@ default ignores letter-case in file names during completion. @vindex w32-get-true-file-attributes - If the variable @code{w32-get-true-file-attributes} is -non-@code{nil} (the default), Emacs tries to determine the accurate -link counts for files. This option is only useful on NTFS volumes, -and it considerably slows down Dired and other features, so disable it -on slow machines. + The variable @code{w32-get-true-file-attributes} controls whether +Emacs should issue additional system calls to determine more +accurately file attributes in primitives like @code{file-attributes} +and @code{directory-files-and-attributes}. These additional calls are +needed to report correct file ownership, link counts and file types +for special files such as pipes. Without these system calls, file +ownership will be attributed to the current user, link counts will be +always reported as 1, and special files will be reported as regular +files. + + If the value of this variable is @code{local} (the default), Emacs +will issue these additional system calls only for files on local fixed +drives. Any other non-@code{nil} value means do this even for +removable and remote volumes, where this could potentially slow down +Dired and other related features. The value of @code{nil} means never +issue those system calls. Non-@code{nil} values are only useful on +NTFS volumes, which support hard links and file security. @node ls in Lisp @section Emulation of @code{ls} on MS-Windows