Re: Bug in canonicalize_path()

Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
> I figured it would be best to leave it alone if we can't process it, but
> if you think it is more imporant to trim in cases like ../.., go ahead.

My recollection of this patch:

2004-08-09 16:20 tgl

* src/: port/exec.c, port/path.c, bin/initdb/initdb.c:
Path-mangling logic was failing to account for paths containing
mentions of '.' or '..'. Extend canonicalize_path() to trim off
trailing occurrences of these things, and use it to fix up paths
where needed (which I think is only after places where we trim the
last path component, but maybe some others will turn up). Fixes
Josh's complaint that './initdb' does not work.

is that it's part of the API contract of canonicalize_path() that it
will not return something with trailing "." or "..". It's not just
neatnik-ism to strip those, it's necessary to allow higher-level
path-mangling routines to reason about how to do what they need.
The entire concept of "trim the last directory" fails if you have
to account for "." or "..".

regards, tom lane