[Ffmpeg-devel] [PATCH] from DivX, Part 2: Multifile source

[Rich Felker]

On Wed, Jan 25, 2006 at 11:04:25PM +0100, Aurelien Jacobs wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:23:14 +0000
> M?ns Rullg?rd <mru at inprovide.com> wrote:
> 
> > Michael Niedermayer <michaelni at gmx.at> writes:
> > 
> > > Hi
> > >
> > > On Wed, Jan 25, 2006 at 09:36:10AM -1000, Steve Lhomme wrote:
> > > [...]
> > >> >>+#define IO_MULTI_FILE_SEPAR  '*'
> > >> >
> > >> >IMHO a '*' is a uncommon choice as seperator, what about : or , ?
> > >> 
> > >> The idea is to be able to use -i cat:file1.vob*file2.vob from the 
> > >> command-line. * is the only one I found that can't be set (easily) in a 
> > >> filename on Windows and Linux.
> > >
> > > ok, personally i dont care, so if noone complains iam fine with * as
> > > seperator
> > 
> > It is always a good idea to avoid using shell metacharacters,
> > particularly those that expand into multiple names, and * as a
> > separator feels unnatural to me.  In Unix systems : is the typical
> > separator for things like $PATH, and files with a : in the name are as
> > rare as those with a *.  In Windows, I suppose : is not such a good
> > choice because of the drive letter mess.  Since any character is legal
> > in a Unix filename, it's hard to come up with a good choice though.
> 
> I don't like * either. And also agree that : sounds like the more
> natural choice.
> Maybe / would be a good choice ? I don't think it is legal in a unix
> file name, and IIRC, it's not allowed in windows either. Moreover,
> it's not a shell metacharacter.

WTF? Of course / isn't legal in a filename because it's the PATH
SEPARATOR! If you use this to separate filenames to concatenate, how
will you specify files not in the current directory?!

Rich