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namestring, file-namestring, directory-namestring, host-namestring, enough-namestring

namestring, file-namestring, directory-namestring, host-namestring, enough-namestring Function

Syntax:

namestring pathname → namestring

file-namestring pathname → namestring

directory-namestring pathname → namestring

host-namestring pathname → namestring

enough-namestring pathname &optional defaults → namestring

namestring, file-namestring, directory-namestring, . . .

Arguments and Values:

pathname—a pathname designator .

defaults—a pathname designator . The default is the value of *default-pathname-defaults*. namestring—a string or nil.

Description:

These functions convert pathname into a namestring. The name represented by pathname is returned as a namestring in an implementation-dependent canonical form.

namestring returns the full form of pathname.

file-namestring returns just the name, type, and version components of pathname. directory-namestring returns the directory name portion.

host-namestring returns the host name.

enough-namestring returns an abbreviated namestring that is just sufficient to identify the file named by pathname when considered relative to the defaults. It is required that

(merge-pathnames (enough-namestring pathname defaults) defaults)

≡ (merge-pathnames (parse-namestring pathname nil defaults) defaults)

in all cases, and the result of enough-namestring is the shortest reasonable string that will satisfy this criterion.

It is not necessarily possible to construct a valid namestring by concatenating some of the three shorter namestrings in some order.

Examples:

(namestring "getty") 
→ "getty" 
(setq q (make-pathname :host "kathy" 
		       :directory 
		       (pathname-directory \*default-pathname-defaults\*) 
		       :name "getty")) 
→ #S(PATHNAME :HOST "kathy" :DEVICE NIL :DIRECTORY *directory-name* 
	      :NAME "getty" :TYPE NIL :VERSION NIL) 
(file-namestring q) → "getty" 
(directory-namestring q) → directory-name 
(host-namestring q) → "kathy" 
;;;Using Unix syntax and the wildcard conventions used by the 
;;;particular version of Unix on which this example was created: 

(namestring 
 (translate-pathname "/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l" 
		     "/usr/d\*/hacks/\*.l" 
		     "/usr/d\*/backup/hacks/backup-\*.\*")) 
→ "/usr/dmr/backup/hacks/backup-frob.l" 
(namestring 
 (translate-pathname "/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l" 
		     "/usr/d\*/hacks/fr\*.l" 
		     "/usr/d\*/backup/hacks/backup-\*.\*")) 
→ "/usr/dmr/backup/hacks/backup-ob.l" 
;;;This is similar to the above example but uses two different hosts, 
;;;U: which is a Unix and V: which is a VMS. Note the translation 
;;;of file type and alphabetic case conventions. 
(namestring 
 (translate-pathname "U:/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l" 
		     "U:/usr/d\*/hacks/\*.l" 
		     "V:SYS$DISK:[D\*.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-\*.\*")) 
→ "V:SYS$DISK:[DMR.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-FROB.LSP" 
(namestring 
 (translate-pathname "U:/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l" 
		     "U:/usr/d\*/hacks/fr\*.l" 
		     "V:SYS$DISK:[D\*.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-\*.\*")) 
→ "V:SYS$DISK:[DMR.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-OB.LSP"

See Also:

truename, merge-pathnames, pathname, logical-pathname, Section 20.1 (File System Concepts), Section 19.1.2 (Pathnames as Filenames)

Expanded Reference: namestring, file-namestring, directory-namestring, host-namestring, enough-namestring​

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