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6.2 Pathnames and Pathspecs

Structured Object: pathname ¶

A pathname is a structured object which represents a filename.

There are two kinds of pathnames:

• physical pathnames (physical pathname)
• logical pathnames (logical pathname)

Pathname: logical pathname ¶

An object of type logical-pathname.

A pathname that uses a namestring syntax that is implementation-independent, and that has component values that are implementation-independent. Logical pathnames do not refer directly to filenames.

Pathname: physical pathname ¶

A pathname that is not a logical pathname.

An object of type pathname is a structured representation of the name of a file. A pathname has six components:

• host
• device
• directory
• name
• type
• version

Function: pathname pathspec => pathname ¶

Returns the pathname denoted by pathspec.

PATHSPEC

If the pathspec designator is a file stream created by opening a logical pathname, a logical pathname is returned.

PATHNAME

the pathname returned corresponds to the filename used to open the file.

Object: pathname designator pathspec ¶

A designator for a pathname; that is, an object that denotes a pathname and that is one of:

• pathname namestring¹² (denoting the corresponding pathname)
• a stream associated with a file (denoting the pathname used to open the file)
• pathname (denoting itself)