Re: Get login name and/or path to home directory of current user?

In article <135vm2fr6kccfad@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 SM Ryan <wyrmwif@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Don Bruder <dakidd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> # In article <135qa6897ko7h6c@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> #  SM Ryan <wyrmwif@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> # 
> # > # The good news is that I always know the file's path: 
> # > # "/Users/LoginName/Client.log", so I can easily pass it to 
> # > # FSPathMakeRef() to get an FSRef to work with.
> # > 
> # > char fpath[] = "%s/Client.log";
> # > char path[sizeof fpath+strlen(homedirectory)];
> # > sprintf(path,fpath,homedirectory);
> # > 
> # > FSRef is evil.
> # 
> # OK, I'll play along... Why is FSRef evil? Please be specific and 
> # convincing. 
> 
> Because you're working on Unix now, and it's time to get into the
> 1970s.

Silly me. I'd rather notice that I've got a fairly large toolbox and use 
the right tool for the job at hand. I might also notice that most of 
those tools came later than simple paths and have advantages over them 
in many cir***stances.

> Unix has two simple ways to identify a file, either or both
> of which are available on nearly all system calls: the file path
> (char*) and the open file descriptor (int). Any complexity of 
> interpretting the path are left to the kernel. FSRef is a redress
> of FSSpec

That's a fascinating statement which I wonder if you can back up, 
considering it's officially opaque and what is said is: "An FSRef 
contains whatever information is needed to find the given object; the 
internal structure of an FSRef is likely to vary based on the volume 
format, and may vary based on the particular object being identified."

> which was little more than an HFS directory entry.

Specifically it was a triple of volume ID, directory ID and file name. 
It was a bit more robust than a path in that it didn't matter at all if 
any component of the path other than the leaf was renamed or moved 
(within the volume) between when the FSSpec was created and when it was 
used.

Of course, if you want to cache a long-term reference to a file, you'll 
use an Alias.