User`s guide

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KwikNet Virtual File System
VFS File Names
The file name of a virtual file is a text string consisting of two parts, the volume base and
the file part, separated by the / or \ character.
The volume base is a string which will only be used by the Virtual File System when
your application is running. Its main purpose is to allow you to distinguish your virtual
files from real files. If you are not using a real file system, the volume base can be
omitted. The volume base is common to all files in a VFS volume.
The file part is used to uniquely identify each file. The file part always mimics the path,
file name and extension used to identify real files. The reason is as follows. When
defining the set of files which a VFS volume will contain, you must use the file naming
rules dictated by the system on which you are running the VFS Generator so that the
generator will be able to access your real files. Consequently, the file part of the virtual
file will always be a portion of the path and file name used to identify the real file from
which the virtual file was derived.
The following examples illustrate valid virtual file names and their parts.
Volume File
Base Part File Name
\vfsroot index.htm \vfsroot\index.htm
C:\vfsroot html\KADAK.HTM C:\vfsroot\html\KADAK.HTM
\ index.htm \index.htm
image/graphic.gif /image/graphic.gif
By default, the VFS separator character is the separating slash of the underlying real file
system, if any. For example, if MS-DOS
®
or the AMX/FS File System is used with the
Virtual File System, then the VFS separator will be the \ character. If no real file system
is present, the VFS separator will be the
/ character.
File names within the Virtual File System are adjusted to local form as follows. The
volume base will have a trailing slash added to it if none was present in its definition. All
forward and backward slash characters (/ or \) in the volume base and in all file parts
will be converted to the VFS separator character. The file name is created by appending
the file part to the volume base. No other character translation is done.
File names are maintained in local form so that references to files which are not present
in the Virtual File System can always be handled by the underlying real file system, if
one exists.
The case of alphabetic characters within a virtual file's name is not altered by the Virtual
File System. However, case is ignored when searching for a virtual file. Hence, virtual
file names appear to the application to be case insensitive. But beware! If the Virtual
File System cannot find a particular file, the request will be passed to the underlying file
system which may very well be case sensitive.