File size of empty path = 9! why?

[Anand S R]

I am attaching a vi that has empty path to file info function. the vi doesnt return an error. instead it gives me 9 for the file size. why is this?

Anand.

[Ben]

On my machine it returns "11".

At first I thought was default to the current folder and just telling me how many files are there.

Afeter adding another file the value remained at 11.

Not an answer, but more info.

Ben

[Ben]

Looking again, I have 11 drives mapped.

Check if you have a total of 9 drives perhaps.

Ben

[Anand S R]

You are right. It is returning the number of drives i have on my machine. But isnt that funny that the File/Directroy info somehow returns the number of drives when you wire empty path!

Thanks,
Anand.

[Ben]

Don't know, just guessing.

May have to do with legacy (coming from the MAC) or cross platform support (UNIX).

I believe they have always hung their drives off a root.

Ben

[waldemar.hersacher]

Hi SRA,

an empty path contected to some of the File functions work on the level of the drives. If you would connect an empty path to the "List directory" function you will get all drives your machine has in the directory output. This is an undocumented feature and I don't know if this works on non-windows machines.

Waldemar

[Matt_K]

Ben & Waldemar were indeed correct that the number returned correlates to the number of drives on your machine. This behavior is intended although I wouldn't necessarily say expected. I have notified our R&D & documentation team so they can work on this issue and ensure there is documentation in the future for this behavior.

Matt Kisler
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[waldemar.hersacher]

Please do not remove this feature in the future, only document it. We have dialogs which use it.

Waldemar

[Greg_McKaskle2]

> an empty path contected to some of the File functions work on the
> level of the drives. If you would connect an empty path to the "List
> directory" function you will get all drives your machine has in the

The empty path has to have a predictable behavior to the file functions,
and the options were -- returns an error, or does something useful.

Way back in Win31 days, it was decided that it was the desktop on the
Mac, root on unix, and the Machine on Windows. I suspect this was once
documented, but documentation needs to get trimmed from time to time,
and this was probably left on the cutting-room floor. Maybe we need the
DVD edition with all of the left out goodies put back in?

Greg McKaskle

[Ben]

Now there is a DVD I'd watch.

Ben