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recls - FAQ

The FAQ list is under (constant) development. If you post a question on the Issues forum (https://github.com/synesissoftware/recls/issues) it will be used to create one.

FAQs:

Q1: "How is this different from ls, which is recursive as well?"

The idea is to have a platform-independent recursive search library, which can be used in any application, rather than a platform-specific recursive searching utility, such as ls. By providing mappings to a whole host of different languages, the kind of code that most people have knocked up for recursive searching in C or C++ will now be available to developers in almost any language, and in a well-tested and highly portable form.

Q2: ". "I'm developing an application that needs to run on both WinTEL and Linux, and I'd like to use recls. When will recls support UNIX?"

Version 1.2.1 (available from 23rd January 2004) supports Linux. Although it's not been tested on other UNIX flavours it uses no Linux-specific features, and is very likely to port without any problems to them. All they need is the readdir(), glob() and stat() APIs

Q3: "Can anyone contribute to recls?"

Certainly.

Q4: "When will recls support FTP enumeration?"

As of version 1.5.1 (available from 10th June 2004), recls supports FTP enumeration for Win32. Support for UNIX will be included in a forthcoming release.

Q5: "Why do you use your own STLSoft libraries? Why not use Boost?"

Since I wrote STLSoft, I am very familiar with the facilities the libraries provide, and am able to best use them. I have also added new components to STLSoft as a result of the requirements of recls, which I would not be able to do so easily for another library, such as Boost.

Q6: "Does recls support breadth-first searching (BFS)?"

Not at the moment. However, after version 1.10.0, I plan to fork the library and produce recls 2.0, which will introduce substantial changes, including filtering on size/date/attributes, plug-in pattern matching, other recursive system searches (such as Win32 registry, CVS, etc.), and BFS. I expect this will be out sometime mid 2005.

NOTE: recls.NET supports both breadth-first and depth-first searching.

Q7: "The D standard library docs for recls do not correspond to the version included with the D compiler. What gives?"

Since version 1.2.1 of recls, Walter Bright, the creator of D, has not accepted any updates to recls due to concerns over its code size, both source and object. Naturally, this has caused consternation for some D users, who've had to manually compile/build/link std.recls from the libraries available on this site. Thankfully, version 1.6.1 of recls includes significant work to refactor the implementation, and trim it down, and I expect 1.6.1 of recls to feature in the D standard library in March 2005.

Q8: "Why should I lash out US$40 of my hard-earned cash for your book

Imperfect C++? I mean, I know it's currently packing five stars on Amazon.com, but what does it give me?"

H.J., that's a great question. All I can say is that if you're a practising C++ programmer, who is interested in any/all of the issues of portability, robustness, efficiency or maintainability, then Imperfect C++ is the book for you! And that's my honest, unbiased opinion. :-)

NOTE: This was from around 2005, and much of the material in Imperfect C++ is now outdated in light of the substantial improvements to C++ over the intervening years.

Q9: "Is there a documentation/tutorial besides the API documentation?"

Well, yes and no. Almost all of the developments in the core library and the mappings have been documented in my column Positive Integration in C/C++ Users Journal (available online at www.ddj.com/columns/wilson). If you're a subscriber to either CUJ or to DDJ's online resources, then you can read all about them there.

In addition, there are very plainly written (at least that's the intention) examples in C and C++, and all of the mapped languages, which demonstrate most/all the available functionality.

But I'm always painfully aware that my documentation is lacking, so if there're specific ideas you have for improving it, please let me know, and I'll be happy to tackle them.

Q10: "Is there a newsgroup for recls?"

No, but users have tended to post to the STLSoft newsgroups, which is kindly provided by Digital Mars.

NOTE: It is strongly preferred that you instead use the facilities on the project's GitHub at http://github.com/synesissoftware/recls/.

Q11: "How do I build recls?"

See instructions in INSTALL.md.

Q12: "Does recls have unit-tests?"

Yes, in the test/unit and test/component directories.