Porting Unix to Windows- usage of pwd.h - c

I'm trying to compile libUnihan code with MinGW, but have run into a function which requires porting. The purpose of the function is to get a canonical path representation. It uses pwd.h (which is POSIX, and MinGW isn't) so it can account for the use of '~' to mean the home directory by retrieving a passwd struct, which contains pw_dir. I did find a little information here, and a port of realpath here, but I am still entirely at a loss as to how to deal with this. With MinGW, I still have a home directory represented by ~ and located at /home/nate, but since it isn't POSIX, I don't have pwd.h to help me find where this home directory is.
Q: How can I port the function below to work properly with MinGW?
/**
* Return the canonicalized absolute pathname.
*
* It works exactly the same with realpath(3), except this function can handle the path with ~,
* where realpath cannot.
*
* #param path The path to be resolved.
* #param resolved_path Buffer for holding the resolved_path.
* #return resolved path, NULL is the resolution is not sucessful.
*/
gchar*
truepath(const gchar *path, gchar *resolved_path){
gchar workingPath[PATH_MAX];
gchar fullPath[PATH_MAX];
gchar *result=NULL;
g_strlcpy(workingPath,path,PATH_MAX);
// printf("*** path=%s \n",path);
if ( workingPath[0] != '~' ){
result = realpath(workingPath, resolved_path);
}else{
gchar *firstSlash, *suffix, *homeDirStr;
struct passwd *pw;
// initialize variables
firstSlash = suffix = homeDirStr = NULL;
firstSlash = strchr(workingPath, DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
if (firstSlash == NULL)
suffix = "";
else
{
*firstSlash = 0; // so userName is null terminated
suffix = firstSlash + 1;
}
if (workingPath[1] == '\0')
pw = getpwuid( getuid() );
else
pw = getpwnam( &workingPath[1] );
if (pw != NULL)
homeDirStr = pw->pw_dir;
if (homeDirStr != NULL){
gint ret=g_sprintf(fullPath, "%s%c%s", homeDirStr, DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, suffix);
if (ret>0){
result = realpath(fullPath, resolved_path);
}
}
}
return result;
}

The purpose is to implement ~[username]/ remapping logic. This sort of code makes sense in Linux/UNIX environments, but the most common use is just to refer to the user's own home directory.
For expediency, I'd just add support for the common case - ~/ - i.e. the current user, and not bother supporting the more general case - have it fail with an obvious error in that case.
The function to get the current user's home directory is SHGetFolderPath.
#include <windows.h>
char homeDirStr[MAX_PATH];
if (SUCCEEDED(SHGetFolderPath(NULL, CSIDL_PERSONAL, NULL, 0, homeDirStr))) {
// Do something with the path
} else {
// Do something else
}
In the case of a failed lookup of the user, the code you pasted does not try to replace that string, but simply returns NULL, so you could emulate that.

Related

OS X: How can I get path to Desktop directory on macOS?

How can I get file path to Desktop directory as a string on macOS.
I need it to be done in pure C or with some C-level framework.
If you insist on using only C (why?), then your only choice is to use deprecated APIs:
#include <limits.h>
#include <CoreServices/CoreServices.h>
...
FSRef fsref;
UInt8 path[PATH_MAX];
if (FSFindFolder(kUserDomain, kDesktopFolderType, kDontCreateFolder, &fsref) == noErr &&
FSRefMakePath(&fsref, path, sizeof(path)) == noErr)
{
// Make use of path
}
If you need a CFURL rather than a path, you can use CFURLCreateFromFSRef() rather than FSRefMakePath().
Actually, while researching this, I found an API I hadn't known about. Apparently, you can use this, which apparently comes from Cocoa but uses only C types:
#include <limits.h>
#include <NSSystemDirectories.h>
char path[PATH_MAX];
NSSearchPathEnumerationState state = NSStartSearchPathEnumeration(NSDesktopDirectory, NSUserDomainMask);
while (state = NSGetNextSearchPathEnumeration(state, path))
{
// Handle path
}
The form of the API is that it may return multiple results (one on each iteration of the loop), but you should get only one for the specific use here. In that case, you can change the while to and if.
Note that, with this API, returned paths for directories in the user domain may use "~" rather than the absolute path to the user's home directory. You'll have to resolve that yourself.
Here's a short function, which works on more Unix based systems than just macOS and returns the current user's desktop folder:
#include <limits.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
/**
* Returns the path to the current user's desktop.
*/
char *path2desktop(void) {
static char real_public_path[PATH_MAX + 1] = {0};
if (real_public_path[0])
return real_public_path;
strcpy(real_public_path, getenv("HOME"));
memcpy(real_public_path + strlen(real_public_path), "/Desktop", 8);
return real_public_path;
}
The path will only be computed once.
If the function is called more than once, the old result will be returned (not thread-safe, unless the first call was protected).
I ended with usage of Objective-C in such way:
//
// main.m
// search_path_for_dir
//
// Created by Michal Ziobro on 23/09/2016.
// Copyright © 2016 Michal Ziobro. All rights reserved.
//
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
if(argc != 3)
return 1;
#autoreleasepool {
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(atoi(argv[1]), atoi(argv[2]), YES);
NSString *path = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
[path writeToFile:#"/dev/stdout" atomically:NO encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:nil];
}
return 0;
}
And than from command line I can execute this program in that way:
./search_path_for_dir 12 1
12 - NSDesktopDirectory
1 - NSUserDomainMask
I am using script in C that executes this program from command line and retrieves its output.
Here's C example calling this mini Cocoa App:
CFStringRef FSGetFilePath(int directory, int domainMask) {
CFStringRef scheme = CFSTR("file:///");
CFStringRef absolutePath = FSGetAbsolutePath(directory, domainMask);
CFMutableStringRef filePath = CFStringCreateMutable(NULL, 0);
if (filePath) {
CFStringAppend(filePath, scheme);
CFStringAppend(filePath, absolutePath);
}
CFRelease(scheme);
CFRelease(absolutePath);
return filePath;
}
CFStringRef FSGetAbsolutePath(int directory, int domainMask) {
char path_cmd[BUF_SIZE];
sprintf(path_cmd, "./tools/search_path_for_dir %d %d", directory, domainMask);
char *path = exec_cmd(path_cmd);
return CFStringCreateWithCString(kCFAllocatorDefault, path, kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
}

getpwuid_r and getgrgid_r are slow, how can I cache them?

I am writing a clone of find while learning C. When implementing the -ls option I've stumbled upon a problem that the getpwuid_r and getgrgid_r calls are really slow, the same applies to getpwuid and getgrgid. I need them to display the user/group names from ids provided by stat.h.
For example, listing the whole filesystem gets 3x slower:
# measurements were made 3 times and the fastest run was recorded
# with getgrgid_r
time ./myfind / -ls > list.txt
real 0m4.618s
user 0m1.848s
sys 0m2.744s
# getgrgid_r replaced with 'return "user";'
time ./myfind / -ls > list.txt
real 0m1.437s
user 0m0.572s
sys 0m0.832s
I wonder how GNU find maintains such a good speed. I've seen the sources, but they are not exactly easy to understand and to apply without special types, macros etc:
time find / -ls > list.txt
real 0m1.544s
user 0m0.884s
sys 0m0.648s
I thought about caching the uid - username and gid - groupname pairs in a data structure. Is it a good idea? How would you implement it?
You can find my complete code here.
UPDATE:
The solution was exactly what I was looking for:
time ./myfind / -ls > list.txt
real 0m1.480s
user 0m0.696s
sys 0m0.736s
Here is a version based on getgrgid (if you don't require thread safety):
char *do_get_group(struct stat attr) {
struct group *grp;
static unsigned int cache_gid = UINT_MAX;
static char *cache_gr_name = NULL;
/* skip getgrgid if we have the record in cache */
if (cache_gid == attr.st_gid) {
return cache_gr_name;
}
/* clear the cache */
cache_gid = UINT_MAX;
grp = getgrgid(attr.st_gid);
if (!grp) {
/*
* the group is not found or getgrgid failed,
* return the gid as a string then;
* an unsigned int needs 10 chars
*/
char group[11];
if (snprintf(group, 11, "%u", attr.st_gid) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: snprintf(): %s\n", program, strerror(errno));
return "";
}
return group;
}
cache_gid = grp->gr_gid;
cache_gr_name = grp->gr_name;
return grp->gr_name;
}
getpwuid:
char *do_get_user(struct stat attr) {
struct passwd *pwd;
static unsigned int cache_uid = UINT_MAX;
static char *cache_pw_name = NULL;
/* skip getpwuid if we have the record in cache */
if (cache_uid == attr.st_uid) {
return cache_pw_name;
}
/* clear the cache */
cache_uid = UINT_MAX;
pwd = getpwuid(attr.st_uid);
if (!pwd) {
/*
* the user is not found or getpwuid failed,
* return the uid as a string then;
* an unsigned int needs 10 chars
*/
char user[11];
if (snprintf(user, 11, "%u", attr.st_uid) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: snprintf(): %s\n", program, strerror(errno));
return "";
}
return user;
}
cache_uid = pwd->pw_uid;
cache_pw_name = pwd->pw_name;
return pwd->pw_name;
}
UPDATE 2:
Changed long to unsigned int.
UPDATE 3:
Added the cache clearing. It is absolutely necessary, because pwd->pw_name may point to a static area. getpwuid can overwrite its contents if it fails or simply when executed somewhere else in the program.
Also removed strdup. Since the output of getgrgid and getpwuid should not be freed, there is no need to require free for our wrapper functions.
The timings indeed indicate a strong suspicion on these functions.
Looking at your function do_get_group, there are some issues:
You use sysconf(_SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX); for every call to do_get_group and do_get_user, definitely cache that, it will not change during the lifetime of your program, but you will not gain much.
You use attr.st_uid instead of attr.st_gid, which probably causes the lookup to fail for many files, possibly defeating the cacheing mechanism, if any. Fix this first, this is a bug!
You return values that should not be passed to free() by the caller, such as grp->gr_name and "". You should always allocate the string you return. The same issue is probably present in do_get_user().
Here is a replacement for do_get_group with a one shot cache. See if this improves the performance:
/*
* #brief returns the groupname or gid, if group not present on the system
*
* #param attr the entry attributes from lstat
*
* #returns the groupname if getgrgid() worked, otherwise gid, as a string
*/
char *do_get_group(struct stat attr) {
char *group;
struct group grp;
struct group *result;
static size_t length = 0;
static char *buffer = NULL;
static gid_t cache_gid = -1;
static char *cache_gr_name = NULL;
if (!length) {
/* only allocate the buffer once */
long sysconf_length = sysconf(_SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX);
if (sysconf_length == -1) {
sysconf_length = 16384;
}
length = (size_t)sysconf_length;
buffer = calloc(length, 1);
}
if (!buffer) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: malloc(): %s\n", program, strerror(errno));
return strdup("");
}
/* check the cache */
if (cache_gid == attr.st_gid) {
return strdup(cache_gr_name);
}
/* empty the cache */
cache_gid = -1;
free(cache_gr_name);
cache_gr_name = NULL;
if (getgrgid_r(attr.st_gid, &grp, buffer, length, &result) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: getpwuid_r(): %s\n", program, strerror(errno));
return strdup("");
}
if (result) {
group = grp.gr_name;
} else {
group = buffer;
if (snprintf(group, length, "%ld", (long)attr.st_gid) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: snprintf(): %s\n", program, strerror(errno));
return strdup("");
}
}
/* load the cache */
cache_gid = attr.st_gid;
cache_gr_name = strdup(group);
return strdup(group);
}
Whether the getpwuid and getgrgid calls are cached depends on how they are implemented and on how your system is configured. I recently wrote an implementation of ls and ran into a similar problem.
I found that on all modern systems I tested, the two functions are uncached unless you run the name service caching dæmon (nscd) in which case nscd makes sure that the cache stays up to date. It's easy to understand why this happens: Without an nscd, caching the information could lead to outdated output which is a violation of the specification.
I don't think you should rely on these functions caching the group and passwd databases because they often don't. I implemented custom caching code for this purpose. If you don't require to have up-to-date information in case the database contents change during program execution, this is perfectly fine to do.
You can find my implementation of such a cache here. I'm not going to publish it on Stack Overflow as I do not desire to publish the code under the MIT license.

Find pathname from dlopen handle on OSX

I have dlopen()'ed a library, and I want to invert back from the handle it passes to me to the full pathname of shared library. On Linux and friends, I know that I can use dlinfo() to get the linkmap and iterate through those structures, but I can't seem to find an analogue on OSX. The closest thing I can do is to either:
Use dyld_image_count() and dyld_get_image_name(), iterate over all the currently opened libraries and hope I can guess which one corresponds to my handle
Somehow find a symbol that lives inside of the handle I have, and pass that to dladdr().
If I have apriori knowledge as to a symbol name inside of the library I just opened, I can dlsym() that and then use dladdr(). That works fine. But in the general case where I have no idea what is inside this shared library, I would need to be able to enumerate symbols to do that, which I don't know how to do either.
So any tips on how to lookup the pathname of a library from its dlopen handle would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
Here is how you can get the absolute path of a handle returned by dlopen.
In order to get the absolute path, you need to call the dladdr function and retrieve the Dl_info.dli_fname field.
In order to call the dladdr function, you need to give it an address.
In order to get an address given a handle, you have to call the dlsym function with a symbol.
In order to get a symbol out of a loaded library, you have to parse the library to find its symbol table and iterate over the symbols. You need to find an external symbol because dlsym only searches for external symbols.
Put it all together and you get this:
#import <dlfcn.h>
#import <mach-o/dyld.h>
#import <mach-o/nlist.h>
#import <stdio.h>
#import <string.h>
#ifdef __LP64__
typedef struct mach_header_64 mach_header_t;
typedef struct segment_command_64 segment_command_t;
typedef struct nlist_64 nlist_t;
#else
typedef struct mach_header mach_header_t;
typedef struct segment_command segment_command_t;
typedef struct nlist nlist_t;
#endif
static const char * first_external_symbol_for_image(const mach_header_t *header)
{
Dl_info info;
if (dladdr(header, &info) == 0)
return NULL;
segment_command_t *seg_linkedit = NULL;
segment_command_t *seg_text = NULL;
struct symtab_command *symtab = NULL;
struct load_command *cmd = (struct load_command *)((intptr_t)header + sizeof(mach_header_t));
for (uint32_t i = 0; i < header->ncmds; i++, cmd = (struct load_command *)((intptr_t)cmd + cmd->cmdsize))
{
switch(cmd->cmd)
{
case LC_SEGMENT:
case LC_SEGMENT_64:
if (!strcmp(((segment_command_t *)cmd)->segname, SEG_TEXT))
seg_text = (segment_command_t *)cmd;
else if (!strcmp(((segment_command_t *)cmd)->segname, SEG_LINKEDIT))
seg_linkedit = (segment_command_t *)cmd;
break;
case LC_SYMTAB:
symtab = (struct symtab_command *)cmd;
break;
}
}
if ((seg_text == NULL) || (seg_linkedit == NULL) || (symtab == NULL))
return NULL;
intptr_t file_slide = ((intptr_t)seg_linkedit->vmaddr - (intptr_t)seg_text->vmaddr) - seg_linkedit->fileoff;
intptr_t strings = (intptr_t)header + (symtab->stroff + file_slide);
nlist_t *sym = (nlist_t *)((intptr_t)header + (symtab->symoff + file_slide));
for (uint32_t i = 0; i < symtab->nsyms; i++, sym++)
{
if ((sym->n_type & N_EXT) != N_EXT || !sym->n_value)
continue;
return (const char *)strings + sym->n_un.n_strx;
}
return NULL;
}
const char * pathname_for_handle(void *handle)
{
for (int32_t i = _dyld_image_count(); i >= 0 ; i--)
{
const char *first_symbol = first_external_symbol_for_image((const mach_header_t *)_dyld_get_image_header(i));
if (first_symbol && strlen(first_symbol) > 1)
{
handle = (void *)((intptr_t)handle | 1); // in order to trigger findExportedSymbol instead of findExportedSymbolInImageOrDependentImages. See `dlsym` implementation at http://opensource.apple.com/source/dyld/dyld-239.3/src/dyldAPIs.cpp
first_symbol++; // in order to remove the leading underscore
void *address = dlsym(handle, first_symbol);
Dl_info info;
if (dladdr(address, &info))
return info.dli_fname;
}
}
return NULL;
}
int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
void *libxml2 = dlopen("libxml2.dylib", RTLD_LAZY);
printf("libxml2 path: %s\n", pathname_for_handle(libxml2));
dlclose(libxml2);
return 0;
}
If you run this code, it will yield the expected result: libxml2 path: /usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib
After about a year of using the solution provided by 0xced, we discovered an alternative method that is simpler and avoids one (rather rare) failure mode; specifically, because 0xced's code snippet iterates through each dylib currently loaded, finds the first exported symbol, attempts to resolve it in the dylib currently being sought, and returns positive if that symbol is found in that particular dylib, you can have false positives if the first exported symbol from an arbitrary library happens to be present inside of the dylib you're currently searching for.
My solution was to use _dyld_get_image_name(i) to get the absolute path of each image loaded, dlopen() that image, and compare the handle (after masking out any mode bits set by dlopen() due to usage of things like RTLD_FIRST) to ensure that this dylib is actually the same file as the handle passed into my function.
The complete function can be seen here, as a part of the Julia Language, with the relevant portion copied below:
// Iterate through all images currently in memory
for (int32_t i = _dyld_image_count(); i >= 0 ; i--) {
// dlopen() each image, check handle
const char *image_name = _dyld_get_image_name(i);
uv_lib_t *probe_lib = jl_load_dynamic_library(image_name, JL_RTLD_DEFAULT);
void *probe_handle = probe_lib->handle;
uv_dlclose(probe_lib);
// If the handle is the same as what was passed in (modulo mode bits), return this image name
if (((intptr_t)handle & (-4)) == ((intptr_t)probe_handle & (-4)))
return image_name;
}
Note that functions such as jl_load_dynamic_library() are wrappers around dlopen() that return libuv types, but the spirit of the code remains the same.

a recursive function to manipulate a given path

I am working on modifying the didactic OS xv6 (written in c) to support symbolic links (AKA shortcuts).
A symbolic link is a file of type T_SYM that contains a path to it's destination.
For doing that, i wrote a recursive function that gets a path and a buffer and fills the buffer with the "real" path (i.e. if the path contains a link, it should be replaced by the real path, and a link can occur at any level in the path).
Basically, if i have a path a/b/c/d, and a link from f to a/b, the following operations should be equivalent:
cd a/b/c/d
cd f/c/d
Now, the code is written, but the problem that i try to solve is the problem of starting the path with "/" (meaning that the path is absolute and not relative).
Right now, if i run it with a path named /dir1 it treats it like dir1 (relative instead of absolute).
This is the main function, it calls the recursive function.
pathname is the given path, buf will contain the real path.
int readlink(char *pathname, char *buf, size_t bufsize){
char name[DIRSIZ];
char realpathname[100];
memset(realpathname,0,100);
realpathname[0] = '/';
if(get_real_path(pathname, name, realpathname, 0, 0)){
memmove(buf, realpathname, strlen(realpathname));
return strlen(realpathname);
}
return -1;
}
This is the recursive part.
the function returns an inode structure (which represents a file or directory in the system). it builds the real path inside realpath.
ilock an iunlock are being used to use the inode safely.
struct inode* get_real_path(char *path, char *name, char* realpath, int position){
struct inode *ip, *next;
char buf[100];
char newpath[100];
if(*path == '/')
ip = iget(ROOTDEV, ROOTINO);// ip gets the root directory
else
ip = idup(proc->cwd); // ip gets the current working directory
while((path = skipelem(path, name)) != 0){name will get the next directory in the path, path will get the rest of the directories
ilock(ip);
if(ip->type != T_DIR){//if ip is a directory
realpath[position-1] = '\0';
iunlockput(ip);
return 0;
}
if((next = dirlookup(ip, name, 0)) == 0){//next will get the inode of the next directory
realpath[position-1] = '\0';
iunlockput(ip);
return 0;
}
iunlock(ip);
ilock(next);
if (next->type == T_SYM){ //if next is a symbolic link
readi(next, buf, 0, next->size); //buf contains the path inside the symbolic link (which is a path)
buf[next->size] = 0;
iunlockput(next);
next = get_real_path(buf, name, newpath, 0);//call it recursively (might still be a symbolic link)
if(next == 0){
realpath[position-1] = '\0';
iput(ip);
return 0;
}
name = newpath;
position = 0;
}
else
iunlock(next);
memmove(realpath + position, name, strlen(name));
position += strlen(name);
realpath[position++]='/';
realpath[position] = '\0';
iput(ip);
ip = next;
}
realpath[position-1] = '\0';
return ip;
}
I have tried many ways to do it right but with no success. If anyone sees the problem, i'd be happy to hear the solution.
Thanks,
Eyal
I think it's clear that after running get_real_path(pathname, name, realpathname, 0, 0) the realpathname cannot possibly start with a slash.
Provided the function executes successfully, the memmove(realpath + position, name, strlen(name)) ensures that realpath starts with name, as the position variable always contains zero at the first invocation of memmove.
I'd suggest something like
if(*path == '/') {
ip = iget(ROOTDEV, ROOTINO); // ip gets the root
realpath[position++] = '/';
} else
ip = idup(proc->cwd); // ip gets the current working directory
P.S. I'm not sure why you put a slash into the realpathname before executing the get_real_path, since at this point you don't really know whether the path provided is an absolute one.
Ok, found the problem...
The problem was deeper than what i thought...
Somehow the realpath was changed sometimes with no visible reason... but the reason was the line:
name = newpath;
the solution was to change that line to
strcpy(name,newpath);
the previous line made a binding between the name and the realpath... which can be ok if we were not dealing with softlinks. When dereferencing a subpath, this binding ruined everything.
Thanks for the attempts

Recursive CreateDirectory

I found many examples of CreatingDirectory recursively, but not the one I was looking for.
here is the spec
Given input
\\server\share\aa\bb\cc
c:\aa\bb\cc
USING helper API
CreateDirectory (char * path)
returns true, if successful
else
FALSE
Condition: There should not be any parsing to distinguish if the path is Local or Server share.
Write a routine in C, or C++
I think it's quite easier... here a version that works in every Windows version:
unsigned int pos = 0;
do
{
pos = path.find_first_of("\\/", pos + 1);
CreateDirectory(path.substr(0, pos).c_str(), NULL);
} while (pos != std::string::npos);
Unicode:
pos = path.find_first_of(L"\\/", pos + 1);
Regards,
This might be exactly what you want.
It doesn't try to do any parsing to distinguish if the path is Local or Server share.
bool TryCreateDirectory(char *path){
char *p;
bool b;
if(
!(b=CreateDirectory(path))
&&
!(b=NULL==(p=strrchr(path, '\\')))
){
size_t i;
(p=strncpy((char *)malloc(1+i), path, i=p-path))[i]='\0';
b=TryCreateDirectory(p);
free(p);
b=b?CreateDirectory(path):false;
}
return b;
}
The algorithm is quite simple, just pass the string of higher level directory recursively while creation of current level of directory fails until one success or there is no more higher level. When the inner call returns with succeed, create the current. This method do not parse to determ the local or server it self, it's according to the CreateDirectory.
In WINAPI, CreateDirectory will never allows you to create "c:" or "\" when the path reaches that level, the method soon falls in to calling it self with path="" and this fails, too. It's the reason why Microsoft defines file sharing naming rule like this, for compatibility of DOS path rule and simplify the coding effort.
Totally hackish and insecure and nothing you'd ever actually want to do in production code, but...
Warning: here be code that was typed in a browser:
int createDirectory(const char * path) {
char * buffer = malloc((strlen(path) + 10) * sizeof(char));
sprintf(buffer, "mkdir -p %s", path);
int result = system(buffer);
free(buffer);
return result;
}
How about using MakeSureDirectoryPathExists() ?
Just walk through each directory level in the path starting from the root, attempting to create the next level.
If any of the CreateDirectory calls fail then you can exit early, you're successful if you get to the end of the path without a failure.
This is assuming that calling CreateDirectory on a path that already exists has no ill effects.
The requirement of not parsing the pathname for server names is interesting, as it seems to concede that parsing for / is required.
Perhaps the idea is to avoid building in hackish expressions for potentially complex syntax for hosts and mount points, which can have on some systems elaborate credentials encoded.
If it's homework, I may be giving away the algorithm you are supposed to think up, but it occurs to me that one way to meet those requirements is to start trying by attempting to mkdir the full pathname. If it fails, trim off the last directory and try again, if that fails, trim off another and try again... Eventually you should reach a root directory without needing to understand the server syntax, and then you will need to start adding pathname components back and making the subdirs one by one.
std::pair<bool, unsigned long> CreateDirectory(std::basic_string<_TCHAR> path)
{
_ASSERT(!path.empty());
typedef std::basic_string<_TCHAR> tstring;
tstring::size_type pos = 0;
while ((pos = path.find_first_of(_T("\\/"), pos + 1)) != tstring::npos)
{
::CreateDirectory(path.substr(0, pos + 1).c_str(), nullptr);
}
if ((pos = path.find_first_of(_T("\\/"), path.length() - 1)) == tstring::npos)
{
path.append(_T("\\"));
}
::CreateDirectory(path.c_str(), nullptr);
return std::make_pair(
::GetFileAttributes(path.c_str()) != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES,
::GetLastError()
);
}
void createFolders(const std::string &s, char delim) {
std::stringstream ss(s);
std::string item;
char combinedName[50]={'\0'};
while (std::getline(ss, item, delim)) {
sprintf(combinedName,"%s%s%c",combinedName,item.c_str(),delim);
cout<<combinedName<<endl;
struct stat st = {0};
if (stat(combinedName,&st)==-1)
{
#if REDHAT
mkdir(combinedName,0777);
#else
CreateDirectory(combinedName,NULL);
#endif
}
}
}

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