Path equality isn't correct

[GuillaumeGomez]

The following code always returns false whereas it shouldn't:

use std::path::Path;

fn main() {
    println!("{}", Path::new("src") == Path::new("./src"));
}

Here, both Paths refer to the same location. I'm writing a patch (canonicalize function).

[nagisa]

From boost:

Programmers wishing to determine if two paths are "the same" must decide if that means "the same representation" or "resolve to the same actual file or directory", and choose the appropriate function accordingly.

This is a case from the same bucket.

Keep in mind, that implicitly canonicalizing paths is also wrong – race conditions may make Path::new("src") == Path::new("src") to be false!

[GuillaumeGomez]

@nagisa: Hum... Hard to tell. I just can't get rid of the fact that this equality should return true and not false...

[aturon]

@GuillaumeGomez This is the intended normalization. Some programs distinguish between ./foo and foo in terms of $PATH lookup -- i.e., the former looks only in the current directory, whereas the latter searches in everything listed in $PATH.

[GuillaumeGomez]

@aturon: That's what @nagisa explained to me. It's just a bit hard to understand why we have a Path object then. Just implementing a Path on &OsStr would have been enough then, no?

[aturon]

@GuillaumeGomez Path is basically a wrapper around OsStr that provides a small amount of normalization, as well as parsing. It's a pretty standard approach; see the RFC for more details on the design.

[GuillaumeGomez]

@aturon: Thanks for the link.