bug#18891: Doesn't handle pwd = /C: very well

[Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de>]

Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:

> Well, it seems to me that so long as the Tramp file name syntax can also
> match a real local file name, you cannot avoid testing for the existence
> of such a file. If you are saying that needs to be done in Tramp rather
> than before Tramp is invoked, fine by me.

*If* you don't want a file name handler being invoked, you can either
let-bind `file-name-handler-alist' to nil, or you could prepend the file
name by "/:", i.e. "/:/C:/" in the case which triggered the bug. Both is
possible in order to mask default-directory when starting up Emacs.

And a local file name which will be in conflict with such a file name
for Tramp will be extremely rare, I believe. Do there exist real life
reports?

And this bug (Emacs does not start) is triggered by `file-attributes'
implementation, which does not keep its promises (return nil when
FILENAME cannot be opened). I believe we shall fix this, instead of
changing basic design decisions.

Best regards, Michael.