Re: [gmane.emacs.bugs] Emacs fails to start properly if the current working directory is on a vfat or ntfs filesystem

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA>]

>>> Does anyone here have a vfat/ntfs partition for investigating this bug?
>> 
>> There's no need to investigate, as the problem is clearly evident:
>> Windows-based filesystems don't allow certain characters in file
>> names, and `*' is one of these characters.  So a file name such as
>> `#*scratch*#20913s5z#' is not allowed.
>> 
>> To properly fix such a problem, Emacs needs to know the type of
>> filesystem of a file.  Then we could employ the same technique as the
>> Windows port does now, but conditioned by the filesystem, not the OS.
>> 
>> However, I don't think we have infrastructure for querying the file
>> about its filesystem type, do we?

> Alternatively, we could limit the filenames we generate for autosaving the
> scratch buffer (and any others like it) to use characters that are valid on
> all the filesystems we know about.

That's indeed what we should do.  If and when we ever get support for
filesystem-knowledge in the code, we may revisit this choice, but for
now, please someone change the code that auto-generates those filenames
to avoid characters known to be problematic.  Or better yet: to only
use those chars expected to be always work.


        Stefan