From: Pei-yu Huang
Subject: probe-file of Allegro CL 4.1
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 20:44:47 +0000
Message-ID: <CJJAyq.8H4@cnsnews.Colorado.EDU>

    A file "my-file" is in directory "/my-directory," so the full path
of that file is "/my-directory/my-file":

Allegro CL 4.1 running On SunOS Release 4.1.2,
   (probe-file "/my-directory/my-file") -> #p"/my-directory/my-file"
   (probe-file "/my-directory/my-file/") -> NIL

Allegro CL 4.1 running On SunOS Release 4.1.3 (note a different release of OS) 
   (probe-file "/my-directory/my-file") -> #p"/my-directory/my-file"
   (probe-file "/my-directory/my-file/") -> #p"/my-directory/my-file/"
                                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Is this a bug? And importantly, is there any other way to distinguish between
a directory and a file, without using probe-file? Thanks in advance for any
pointers.

Pei-yu Huang 

From: Barry Margolin
Subject: Re: probe-file of Allegro CL 4.1
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 04:47:15 +0000
Message-ID: <2h2jojINNqin@early-bird.think.com>

In article <··········@cnsnews.Colorado.EDU> ······@spot.Colorado.EDU (Pei-yu Huang) writes:
>Allegro CL 4.1 running On SunOS Release 4.1.3 (note a different release of OS) 
>   (probe-file "/my-directory/my-file") -> #p"/my-directory/my-file"
>   (probe-file "/my-directory/my-file/") -> #p"/my-directory/my-file/"

It's just inheriting SunOS's behavior.  Sun changed the system in 4.1.3 so
that trailing slashes are always ignored (they misinterpreted a POSIX
requirement).  Try "cat /my-directory/my-file/" from the shell and you'll
see the same behavior.

>Is this a bug? And importantly, is there any other way to distinguish between
>a directory and a file, without using probe-file? Thanks in advance for any
>pointers.

Try:

(probe-file "/my-directory/my-file/.")
-- 
Barry Margolin
System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp.

······@think.com          {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar