Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: RFS vs. NFS (turned into "//" (super-root) discussion)
Keywords: POSIX Domain OS super-root-rot
Message-ID: <4014@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 3 Sep 90 19:07:26 GMT
References: <1990Aug21.183615.8315@ico.isc.com> <1990Sep1.181027.20989@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1990Sep2.194548.25502@ico.isc.com>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 18

>Actually, POSIX doesn't quite say this.  It says that a single slash is
>the root, two slashes may be interpreted in an implementation dependent manner
>and that three or more slashes collapse to the same as one.

Actually, POSIX doesn't quite say this, either.  It says (definition of
"pathname", page 32):

	...Multiple successive slashes are considered the same as one
	slash.  A pathname that begins with two successive slashes may
	be interpreted in an implementation-defined manner, although
	more than two leading slashes shall be treated as a single
	slash.

So "foo//bar///bletch" is defined by POSIX to be equivalent to
"foo/bar/bletch", but "//hostname/foo/bar/bletch" may be interpreted in
some implementation-defined manner that's not the same as
"/hostname/foo/bar/bletch"; however, "///hostname/foo/bar/bletch" must
be interpreted as "/hostname/foo/bar/bletch".