From: Tim Hunter <rmagick@...>
Date: 2008-03-22T02:04:20+09:00
Subject: Re: File.exist? behavior problem/question

Ryan Gifford wrote:
> I am getting strange behavior running the following test case:
> 
> 1.  Create a file on filesystem (created D:/auz.dat)
> 2.  Check to see if the created file exists by running
>     File.exist?("D:/auz.dat")
> 3. The code returns True
> 4. Run File.exist?("D:/aux.dat") (this file does not exists and should
> return false)
> 5. It returns True.
> 
> The only file that should exist is auz.dat. Looking for auu.dat or other
> variations do not consistently return false and looking for aux.dat
> falsely returns true every time.
> 
> File.file? seems to act the same.
> 
> I am new to Ruby and am seeing this behavior in windows (one-click
> install) on any version higher than 1.8.2. On 1.8.2 it behaves as I
> think it should. I am currently using 1.8.5 and cannot recreate this
> behavior in linux - it seems to be specific to the windows installs I
> have tried it on.
> 
> So any feedback would be appreciated - it could just be something simple
> I am doing wrong. Thanks in advance.
> 
> (small test I wrote for this)
> #       def FileExists
>         fileToTest = "D:/aux.dat"
>         puts 'Checking for file: ' + fileToTest
>         if File.exist?(fileToTest)
>                 puts 'file is there'
>         else
>                 puts 'file not found'
>         end
> #       end

Well, I was waiting for somebody more experienced with Windows to chime 
in, but...

This is nothing to do with Ruby. "aux" is a reserved device name in 
Windows. There are others: con, prn, nul, for example. These device 
names look like filenames but they always exist and they exist in every 
directory. Adding an extension doesn't change anything.

Googling aux+com+dos+windows will yield a bunch of info. Here's one good 
hit I found: 
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/10/22/55388.aspx.
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