Date: Wed, 09 Jul 1997 14:38:06 -0500
From: Randy Leberknight <randyl@phx.mcd.mot.com>
Subject: Item #419: CHRP: Backslash in Bootinfo Entities ...

P1275 Openboot Working Group Proposal -- Proposal #:419 Ver 1
    
Title:          Backslash in Bootinfo Entities &directory and &filename

Author:         Randy Leberknight

Date:           07/08/97

Ed/Tech:        Editorial

Synopsis:       Example for full pathname contains unneeded backslashes.
        
Doc & Version:  CHRP Binding 1.7
        
Problem:        Section 3.1.6.1 specifies Bootinfo Entities &directory;
                and &filename; which are to be substituted with the directory
                and filename components of the device specifier. There is an
                example which says that the fully qualified pathname could
                be represented by the following text.

                &device;:[&partition;][,]\&directory;\&filename;

                The presence of the "\" preceeding &directory; and &filename;
                suggests that the "\" character is to be a part of the
                data within the boot-script element itself, rather than
                being produced as a result of the substitution. This creates
                unnecesary compilcations. If the directory component exists
                it will allready contain a backslash, as will the filename
                component. If the "\" allready exists in the text of the
                boot-script then it must be deleted from either the
                boot-script or the respective component of the device
                specifier. Also, if the boot-script contains a reference to
                &directory; or &filename; (with the prepending "\")
                and the device specifier does not contain this component,
                the backslash is again a problem. Consider the device specifier

                	a:\bootinfo.txt
                
                This is a perfectly valid description of a file.

Proposal:       Remove the backslash characters from the example. The
                example would then read:

                &device;:[&partition;][,]&directory;&filename;

                The device specifier has all the information needed for
                directory and filename, including as many "\"s as may be
                required. Let the data in the device specifier stand for
                itself. If there is no directory information in the device
                specifier, then the substitution of a null string would be
                harmless. (As in the case of a:\bootinfo.txt).
-- 
Randy Leberknight
RandyL@phx.mcg.mot.com

[ P1275 Item #419 -- Received: Wed Jul  9 14:40:47 PDT 1997 ]