Why the first // are not removed ?
The following code:
import os
os.path.normpath('//var//lib/')
returns
'//var/lib'
not
'/var/lib'
Here the definition:
normpath(path)
'''Normalize path, eliminating double slashes, etc.'''
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Nouman
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user2652620
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does `'//var/lib'` not work? – SuperStew Sep 10 '18 at 14:45
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Its returning `\\var\\lib` – Nouman Sep 10 '18 at 14:46
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@SuperStew yes it works but it does not match my unittests according to definition. – user2652620 Sep 10 '18 at 14:47
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2@BlackThunder: "On Windows, it also converts forward slashes to backward slashes." – user2652620 Sep 10 '18 at 14:50
1 Answers
6
Because on Windows, there is a path ambiguity that python preserves.
//var/whatever could refer to a drive mounted as the name //var
OR
/var/whatever could refer to a local drive directory.
If python collapsed leading double slashes, you could unknowingly change a path to refer to a different location.
Another way of saying this is that //var and /var are fundamentally different paths, and python treats them differently. You should probably change your test case to reflect this.
NateTheGrate
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`//var` is only well-defined to be a remote filesystem reference on Windows, *but* `//foo` is allowed to be given local/special handling on UNIX too (see last sentence of the spec at http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap04.html#tag_04_11). It *isn't* given that handling on most out-of-the-box UNIX systems, but filesystems like AFS where it's special do exist. – Charles Duffy Sep 10 '18 at 15:08
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Didn't know that! OP seems to be on windows, but that's an important edge case. – NateTheGrate Sep 10 '18 at 15:11