Maven 2 & 3

Improve handling of relative paths with backslashes

Details

  • Type: Improvement Improvement
  • Status: Closed Closed
  • Priority: Minor Minor
  • Resolution: Fixed
  • Affects Version/s: 2.2.1, 3.0-alpha-4
  • Fix Version/s: 3.0-alpha-7
  • Component/s: POM
  • Labels:
    None
  • Environment:
    Unix, Mac
  • Complexity:
    Intermediate
  • Number of attachments :
    0

Description

Consider this snippet:

<parent>
  <relativePath>..\pom.xml</relativePath>
</parent>

Note in particular the backslash used in the path. While this path will be properly resolved on a Windows box, it will fail to resolve the local parent on a Unix/Mac box (as the backslash is not a separator but escape character here). This applies to other paths in the POM as well.

For platform-independent behavior, we should either encourage the user to use forward slashes (by means of validation warnings/errors) or have Maven convert the paths internally.

Issue Links

depends upon

Improvement - An improvement or enhancement to an existing feature or task. PLX-450 Make FileConverter insensitive to file separator used in input

  • Minor - Minor loss of function, or other problem where easy workaround is present.
  • Closed - The issue is considered finished, the resolution is correct. Issues which are not closed can be reopened.
relates to

Bug - A problem which impairs or prevents the functions of the product. MNG-5035 \ -> / on Unix for java.io.File-typed mojo param

  • Major - Major loss of function.
  • Closed - The issue is considered finished, the resolution is correct. Issues which are not closed can be reopened.

Activity

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Anders Kr. Andersen added a comment -

In my eyes writing <relativePath>..\pom.xml</relativePath> means <<dot>> <<dot>> <<escapeP>> <<letter o>> <<letter m>> etc.
And it makes no sense.
a correct way must be to write <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>

I have written <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath> several places, and it seems to work.

So yes backslash is an error. And should procduce a warning.
The question is just how do we know that escape is used wrong?
A sentence like <relativePath>\<SYSTEM\$HOME\>pom.xml</relativePath> could make sense on Open VMS.

My conclusion is that this is just something that developers should know.

A simulary situation is to write <relativePath>$

{myParameter}/pom.xml</relativePath> and not having set a value to property myParameter. In this case maven tells that it cannot find file ${myParameter}

/pom.xml.

Maybe maven's pom checkker tool could be told to check for these things?

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Anders Kr. Andersen added a comment - In my eyes writing <relativePath>..\pom.xml</relativePath> means <<dot>> <<dot>> <<escapeP>> <<letter o>> <<letter m>> etc. And it makes no sense. a correct way must be to write <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath> I have written <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath> several places, and it seems to work. So yes backslash is an error. And should procduce a warning. The question is just how do we know that escape is used wrong? A sentence like <relativePath>\<SYSTEM\$HOME\>pom.xml</relativePath> could make sense on Open VMS. My conclusion is that this is just something that developers should know. A simulary situation is to write <relativePath>$ {myParameter}/pom.xml</relativePath> and not having set a value to property myParameter. In this case maven tells that it cannot find file ${myParameter} /pom.xml. Maybe maven's pom checkker tool could be told to check for these things?
Benjamin Bentmann made changes -
Field Original Value New Value
Link This issue depends upon PLX-450 [ PLX-450 ]
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Paul Benedict added a comment -

I opt for a warning to be produced in 3.0 and trigger an error in 3.1. To "encourage the user", warnings are the best means.

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Paul Benedict added a comment - I opt for a warning to be produced in 3.0 and trigger an error in 3.1. To "encourage the user", warnings are the best means.
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Benjamin Bentmann added a comment -

Revised separator handling in r904931.

I opted to accept both forward and backslash as file separators. For one, this matches Ant's behavior. And for second because issueing a warning from all relevant code spots isn't feasible.

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Benjamin Bentmann added a comment - Revised separator handling in r904931 . I opted to accept both forward and backslash as file separators. For one, this matches Ant's behavior. And for second because issueing a warning from all relevant code spots isn't feasible.
Benjamin Bentmann made changes -
Resolution Fixed [ 1 ]
Fix Version/s 3.0-alpha-7 [ 16087 ]
Assignee Benjamin Bentmann [ bentmann ]
Status Open [ 1 ] Closed [ 6 ]
Benjamin Bentmann made changes -
Link This issue relates to MNG-5035 [ MNG-5035 ]

People

  • Assignee:
    Benjamin Bentmann
    Reporter:
    Benjamin Bentmann
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Dates

  • Created:
    Updated:
    Resolved: