bug#36502: Fwd: bug#36502: 27.0.50; infinite loop in file-name-case-insensitive-p

[Richard Stallman]

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  > (let ((default-directory "~foo"))
  >    (expand-file-name "bar"))
  > => "~foo/~foo/bar"

That is not right, but I think "~foo/bar" would be right.

  > Part of what's confusing here is that file-name-absolute-p returns
  > t on file names starting with "~", even though its doc string
  > explicitly states that such a file name is not absolute.

This contradiction is not good.  But I would like to point out
that, in a certain sesne, a name starting with ~ is absolute.
It is not relative to the current directory.

We may have a problem with two different meanings of "absolute",
each being pertinent to some situations.

  > My inclination is that if default-directory starts with "~", then we should 
try 
  > to convert it to a (truly) absolute file name.

There may be some circumstances where that is better, but not always.



-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)