Re: URL filename syntax?

[storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm)]

kai.grossjohann@gmx.net (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> Is it desirable to use URL-like syntax for remote files?

Summary: No.


> 
> Currently, Tramp uses this format:
> 
>     /method:user@host:localname
> 
> My idea is to use
> 
>     /method://user@host/localname
> 

For normal find-file syntax, // means to discard everything before the
second slash; thus, your suggested change may be hard to get through the
standard read-file-name function (without some changes at the C level).

Also, for a package like ido, the absense of any slashes in the "tramp
part" of the file name is a significant advantage when it comes to
parsing such strings and determining what is what [and given the
obscure ways tramp does method/user/server/file name completion, this
is necessary; look at the code in ido.el, if you don't believe me :-)]

>   I think we can't require our users to type %2F in such cases, and
>   therefore I propose to change the ftp URL syntax to interpret
>   ftp://user@host//foo as the file /foo on the remote host.  (And
>   ftp://user@host/foo refers to ~user/foo.)

Again, you are violating the principle that // has a special meaning
when entering a file name.

> 
> * Tramp allows to omit the method.  How do I do that with URLs?

///user@host/localname

[things get worse, right?]

> 
> * Tramp also supports multi-hop connections, with a syntax like
> 
>     /multi:hop1:hop2:...:hopN:localname
> 
>   where hopI looks like hop-method:user@host.  So, for example,
> 
>     /multi:telnet:kai@marvin:su:root@localhost:/etc/passwd
> 
>   means to use telnet to log in as user kai on marvin, then use
>   /bin/su there to become root, then access the file /etc/passwd.

With URL syntax, you would need to write // to access a file
from the root, ie.

     /multi://telnet:kai@marvin/su:root@localhost//etc/passwd
 
or you would open ~root/etc/passwd,  right?

> 
>   In the rare case where one would like to access a file/directory
>   whose name contains a colon, one can add slashes.  So to access the
>   file "foo:bar" in root's homedir, one could use
> 
>     /multi:telnet:kai@marvin:su:root@localhost:~/foo:bar
> 
>   which is unambiguous.

Ok, but I suppose that is a general problem, not specific to using the
URL syntax or not.

> 
>   Clearly, multi://telnet:kai@marvin/su:root@localhost/foo:bar will
>   not work so well...  

Agree! 

>                        Hm.  But I could support ~, too, so this would
>   become multi://telnet:kai@marvin/su:root@localhost/~/foo:bar which
>   is unambiguous.

And ugly.

I definitely prefer the current tramp syntax!  It does the job well,
has a tidy syntax, works well with read-file-name (and ido), and it
doesn't pretend to be something it ain't.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> http://www.cua.dk