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#### 19.4.11 namestring, file-namestring, directory-namestring,

#### host-namestring, enough-namestring

[Function]

`namestring` pathname ⇒ namestring

`file-namestring` pathname ⇒ namestring

`directory-namestring` pathname ⇒ namestring

`host-namestring` pathname ⇒ namestring

`enough-namestring` pathname &optional defaults ⇒ namestring

#### Arguments and Values::

pathname—a pathname designator.

defaults—a pathname designator.

The default is the value of *default-pathname-defaults*.

namestring—a string or nil.

[Editorial Note by KMP: Under what circumstances can NIL be returned??]

#### Description::

These functions convert pathname into a namestring. The name represented by pathname is returned as a namestring in an implementation-dependent canonical form.

namestring returns the full form of pathname.

file-namestring returns just the name, type, and version components of pathname.

directory-namestring returns the directory name portion.

host-namestring returns the host name.

enough-namestring returns an abbreviated namestring that is just sufficient to identify the file named by pathname when considered relative to the defaults. It is required that

     (merge-pathnames (enough-namestring pathname defaults) defaults)
    ≡ (merge-pathnames (parse-namestring pathname nil defaults) defaults)

in all cases, and the result of enough-namestring is the shortest reasonable string that will satisfy this criterion.

It is not necessarily possible to construct a valid namestring by concatenating some of the three shorter namestrings in some order.

#### Examples::

     (namestring "getty")
    ⇒  "getty"
     (setq q (make-pathname :host "kathy"
                             :directory
                               (pathname-directory *default-pathname-defaults*)
                             :name "getty"))
    ⇒  #S(PATHNAME :HOST "kathy" :DEVICE NIL :DIRECTORY directory-name
           :NAME "getty" :TYPE NIL :VERSION NIL)
     (file-namestring q) ⇒  "getty"
     (directory-namestring q) ⇒  directory-name
     (host-namestring q) ⇒  "kathy"

     ;;;Using Unix syntax and the wildcard conventions used by the
     ;;;particular version of Unix on which this example was created:
     (namestring
       (translate-pathname "/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l"
                           "/usr/d*/hacks/*.l"
                           "/usr/d*/backup/hacks/backup-*.*"))
    ⇒  "/usr/dmr/backup/hacks/backup-frob.l"
     (namestring
       (translate-pathname "/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l"
                           "/usr/d*/hacks/fr*.l"
                           "/usr/d*/backup/hacks/backup-*.*"))
    ⇒  "/usr/dmr/backup/hacks/backup-ob.l"

     ;;;This is similar to the above example but uses two different hosts,
     ;;;U: which is a Unix and V: which is a VMS.  Note the translation
     ;;;of file type and alphabetic case conventions.
     (namestring
       (translate-pathname "U:/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l"
                           "U:/usr/d*/hacks/*.l"
                           "V:SYS$DISK:[D*.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-*.*"))
    ⇒  "V:SYS$DISK:[DMR.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-FROB.LSP"
     (namestring
       (translate-pathname "U:/usr/dmr/hacks/frob.l"
                           "U:/usr/d*/hacks/fr*.l"
                           "V:SYS$DISK:[D*.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-*.*"))
    ⇒  "V:SYS$DISK:[DMR.BACKUP.HACKS]BACKUP-OB.LSP"

#### See Also::

truename , merge-pathnames , pathname, logical-pathname, File System Concepts,

Pathnames as Filenames

Next: parse-namestring, Previous: *default-pathname-defaults*, Up: Filenames Dictionary