homedir (was Re: opendir(), getcwd)

Scott,

>Hi Rick,

>You appear to have opendir() confused with chdir().   The former function
>opens up a directory -- any directory -- so that it can be read with the
>readdir() function.   The latter changes the current working directory.

you're right, I did have them confused.   I'm actually trying to debug a
problem that just cropped up with my application of your ftpapi stuff that
you helped me with a couple years ago.  it's the strangest thing, stuff
that had been working just fine suddenly started failing.

I think the failure might have something to do the homedir parm in the user
profile (I messed around with it around the time I started getting
failures, but have since changed it back, but problems are still occuring),
but I'm not completely convinced yet.

this is what the help says on homedir:

"The home directory is the user's initial working directory for the
Integrated File System.  The working directory associated with a process is
used to resolve any path names that do not begin with a slash (/).  If the
home directory specified in the user profile does not exist when the user
signs on, the user's initial working directory is the root (/) directory.
You may specify a directory name or *USRPRF.  *USRPRF causes the home
directory to be /home/xxxxx, where xxxxx is the user's profile name."

given that, does this mean:

1) if i specify a directory in chdir() or opendir() that begins with a
slash(/), it will not use the home directory as part of the path?

2) if I do NOT have an opening slash(/), it will prepend the home directory
to it?

3) if the user has a homedir that doesn't exist or is *USRPRF (which causes
it to be '/home/usrprfname') and that directory doesn't exist, how does
that effect questions 1 and 2?

i've obviously got a lot more debuggin' to do.

thanks a ton,

Rick

"... any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy and still
know where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with". - Ford
Prefect