Weird behavior of ~f modifier when path includes wildcards

[dbenham]

I've long known that the ~f modifier used with parameter or FOR variable expansion is able to expand paths with wildcards into the first folder/file that it finds. The ~f modifier treats each node with wildcards within the source path separately when expanding wildcards, and works from left to right. If it finds a node with wildcards that cannot be matched to an existing file or folder, then that node and all subsequent nodes remain unchanged. (no wildcard expansion)

For example, if %1 is "c:\t*t\s*\*.txt" then "%~f1" could expand to "c:\test\subfolder\file.txt". But if the path is changed to "c:\t*t\z*\*.txt" and no folder exists beginning with z, then the expansion becomes "c:\test\z*\*.txt".

Not only does the ~f modifier understand * and ?, it also understands the poorly documented "<" and ">" wildcards.

All well and good. But then StackOverflow user Mofi pointed out some weird behavior to me at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/614 ... 4_61446617. It turns out that if a node consists of nothing but wildcards and possibly dots, then the ~f modifier does not look at the file system, but rather converts the wildcard node into a single dot

So modifying my earlier example a bit, "c:\t*t\?\*.*" becomes "c:\test\.\." Very weird. I was guessing it might have something to do with how Windows implements the backward compatibility hack of "dir *.*" being the same as "dir *". But then I discovered one last bit of weirdness - the wildcards are expanded normally if the node is the root node of a volume. For example, "c:\*" becomes "c:\$Recycle.Bin" on my machine. But "c:\*\*" becomes "c:\$Recycle.Bin\."


Dave Benham

[penpen]

It turns out that if a node consists of nothing but wildcards and possibly dots, then the ~f modifier does not look at the file system, but rather converts the wildcard node into a single dot

Why do you think it does not look at the file system?
Each subdirectory in windows contains the default directory "." (and ".."), which should be in most cases the first entry in the file system (but you shouldn't rely on that).

the wildcards are expanded normally if the node is the root node of a volume. For example, "c:\*" becomes "c:\$Recycle.Bin" on my machine. But "c:\*\*" becomes "c:\$Recycle.Bin\."

That is also expected, because root directories typically don't have the default directory "." (same with ".."), so the first entry there must be something else.


penpen

[dbenham]

Oh my. Thanks penpen. That explains everything.

I'm so conditioned to ignore the . and .. DIR entries, I don't even see them.


Dave Benham