file nativename name
Returns the platform-specific name of the file name. This is useful if the filename is needed to pass to a platform-specific call, such as exec under Windows or AppleScript on the Macintosh.
LES: What is the difference between file nativename and file normalize? What does file nativename do that file normalize doesn't?
RLH: file normalize "Returns a unique normalised path representation for the file-system object (file, directory, link, etc), whose string value can be used as a unique identifier for it. "
MG Basically, file normalize expands ., .. and ~ to the "proper" elements, and file nativename shows the platform-specific directory separators. Usually, for the purposes of displaying a path, you want to use both. For example:
(Griffiths) 2 % pwd C:/Documents and Settings/Griffiths (Griffiths) 3 % set path [file join .. .. windows] ../../windows (Griffiths) 4 % file normalize $path C:/WINDOWS (Griffiths) 5 % file nativename $path ..\..\windows (Griffiths) 6 % file nativename [file normalize $path] C:\WINDOWS (Griffiths) 7 % file normalize [file nativename $path] C:/WINDOWS
So, to display a path the platform-specific way,
file nativename [file normalize $path]
is the thing to use, as it expands everything properly. On Windows, you can go a step further, and use
file nativename [file attributes [file normalize $path] -shortname] file nativename [file attributes [file normalize $path] -longname]
to guarantee you get the short (MS-DOS type 8.3) names, or the longer, full/"real" file names. (You still need the file nativename on the outside, though, to get backslashes, rather than forward slashes.)
Vince says that [file normalize] is guaranteed to be the 'longname', so the second example is longer than necessary. file nativename [file normalize $path] will do the same thing.
LES tells RLH: I am lazy indeed, but not THAT lazy. I asked that question because I read the manual, but that wording did not help me at all. That is a common problem in Tcl's documentation. To the other Tclers, I say that the explanations offered should be clear enough, but I am still puzzled because as a novice programmer I've certainly had problems with paths, but always fixed them completely with no more than file normalize. I still don't see why anyone would need [file nativename].
See also: