Null extension

[chrisjj]

What filemask matches only filenames having a null extension?

Thanks.

[Lutz]

I would guess the mask without extension: *.

Greetings Lutz

[chrisjj]

I would guess

Ah, so I am not the only one who reads the documentation

the mask without extension: *.

Thanks, but no:

[Lutz]

As it's not possible to create NULL-extension files on Windows, the zip is created on a Mac, isn't it? What happens extracting on a Windows System? Are the files refused or are they the right nullextension and spaceextension (I think Windows cuts the extension on creating the files, so filenames differ afterwards)?

[chrisjj]

the zip is created on a Mac, isn't it?

Yup. Hence "Mac OSX".

What happens extracting on a Windows System?

What you saw on the right.

Are the files refused

BC unzips them without complaint.

or are they the right nullextension and spaceextension (I think Windows cuts the extension on creating the files, so filenames differ afterwards)?

The four files in the left-side ZIP get unzipped to the four files on the right.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Try ?.*

[chrisjj]

Try ?.*

Thanks, but that doesn't work here, inc. on 15875. Does it work there?

[Zoë]

Aaron mistyped it. It should be "?*."

[chrisjj]

"?*."

Thanks - that works on the ZIP. Not on the unzipped file, but perhaps that's down to Windows removing the null extension.

Chris (mystified as to why adding the apparently redundant ? has any effect)

[Zoë]

Yeah, the extracted file's name won't include the trailing period because Windows doesn't support it.

Filters in the form "*.xyz" trigger an optimization in the filtering logic and "*." also triggers that behavior, but it won't match right (discovered while looking into this for you). Changing to ?*. bypasses that.

Unfortunately since * matches any character including "." the syntax doesn't have a good way to match only files without extensions. The only way to do it is "[^.];[^.][^.];[^.][^.][^.];etc", expanded out to the maximum number of characters any file name can contain.

[chrisjj]

Filters in the form "*.xyz" trigger an optimization in the but it won't match right (discovered while looking into this for you).

Thanks.

Changing to ?*. bypasses that.

Sounds like undefined behaviour, so I'll avoid storing that in a session.

... "[^.];[^.][^.];[^.][^.][^.];etc", expanded out to the maximum number of characters any file name can contain.

I might just end up doing that. Thanks for making the input control capacity so generous.