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Not really. May Windows programs actively obfuscate certain paths. On linux, ~ is simply shorthand for your home directory. Note that knowing what particular bl

Not really. May Windows programs actively obfuscate certain paths. On linux, ~ is simply shorthand for your home directory. Note that knowing what particular block device is backing a given path is not at all the same thing as being able to see the path in the first place. Beyond that, getting a full path is trivial (realpath) and figuring out which block device backs it is also quite straightforward (findmnt).

emodendroket 4y ago
What program does that?
- d110af5ccf 4y ago
  Well for starters, the example in the post at the top of this page would presumably not have happened if the paths in Explorer hadn't been obfuscated. So that's one example. There are also strange constructions that don't actually correspond to a single folder, or at least there were the last time I used Windows which was quite a few years ago now. A place that looked like a photo directory in Explorer, but actually it was a view of multiple directories and I don't know where stuff ended up if you copied into it.
  - mananaysiempre 4y ago
    > There are also strange constructions that don't actually correspond to a single folder The Explorer does not browse the file system, it browses a graph of (COM) objects called the “shell namespace”[1], and has been since Windows 95. Notable examples of non-filesystem nodes include My Computer, Recycle Bin, Control Panel, and Network Neighbourhood; a more obscure one is the All Tasks (“god mode”) collection of all settings applets that exists so that the Start menu can search it[2]. I actually think it’s neat how seamlessly this approach has been integrated—we don’t usually think about it even though we actually encounter it all the time. Microsoft’s attempts to extend this to a full-blown object-oriented (Cairo) or relational (Longhorn) filing system were always so muddled I don’t really get what the actual idea was, though. [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/win32/shell/namespace-intro https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/win32/shell/namespace-in... [2] http://brandonlive.com/2010/01/04/the-so-called-god-mode/ http://brandonlive.com/2010/01/04/the-so-called-god-mode/
psd1 4y ago
This is the first time I've heard of realpath, so it may be simple, but it's at least slightly obscure

emodendroket 4y ago

What program does that?

d110af5ccf 4y ago
Well for starters, the example in the post at the top of this page would presumably not have happened if the paths in Explorer hadn't been obfuscated. So that's one example. There are also strange constructions that don't actually correspond to a single folder, or at least there were the last time I used Windows which was quite a few years ago now. A place that looked like a photo directory in Explorer, but actually it was a view of multiple directories and I don't know where stuff ended up if you copied into it.
- mananaysiempre 4y ago
  > There are also strange constructions that don't actually correspond to a single folder The Explorer does not browse the file system, it browses a graph of (COM) objects called the “shell namespace”[1], and has been since Windows 95. Notable examples of non-filesystem nodes include My Computer, Recycle Bin, Control Panel, and Network Neighbourhood; a more obscure one is the All Tasks (“god mode”) collection of all settings applets that exists so that the Start menu can search it[2]. I actually think it’s neat how seamlessly this approach has been integrated—we don’t usually think about it even though we actually encounter it all the time. Microsoft’s attempts to extend this to a full-blown object-oriented (Cairo) or relational (Longhorn) filing system were always so muddled I don’t really get what the actual idea was, though. [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/win32/shell/namespace-intro https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/win32/shell/namespace-in... [2] http://brandonlive.com/2010/01/04/the-so-called-god-mode/ http://brandonlive.com/2010/01/04/the-so-called-god-mode/

psd1 4y ago

This is the first time I've heard of realpath, so it may be simple, but it's at least slightly obscure