Question

Please find the below code:

current_dir = Dir.pwd
Dir.chdir('C:\Documents and Settings\Peter\My Documents\userdata\Downloaded Files')
current_dir = Dir.pwd

Dir.entries(current_dir)[2..-1].each do |dir|

  puts dir
  puts "-------"
  Dir.entries(dir)[2..-1].each do |d|

    #file_loc_dir =
    #File.rename(d, dir.concat(d))
    puts File.realdirpath(d ,dir)
    #puts dir.concat(d)

  end
  puts "-------"
end

Output:

C:\Documents and Settings\peter\My Documents\userdata\Ruby\Scripts>FileNamere
naming.rb
D07141
-------
C:/Documents and Settings/peter/My Documents/userdata/Downloaded Files/D07141
/Water lilies.jpg
C:/Documents and Settings/peter/My Documents/userdata/Downloaded Files/D07141
/Winter.jpg
-------
D07141101
-------
C:/Documents and Settings/peter/My Documents/userdata/Downloaded Files/D07141
101/Water lilies.jpg
C:/Documents and Settings/peter/My Documents/userdata/Downloaded Files/D07141
101/Winter.jpg

Confusion:

While puts dir gives D07141 and D07141101, File.realdirpath(d ,dir) gives the expanded directory name. Could you please clarify the logic?

Answer 1

From the documentation:

Returns the real (absolute) pathname of pathname in the actual
filesystem. The real pathname doesn’t contain symlinks or useless
dots.

If dir_string is given, it is used as a base directory for
interpreting relative pathname instead of the current directory.

The last component of the real pathname can be nonexistent.

(http://apidock.com/ruby/v1_9_3_125/File/realdirpath/class)

It is expanded because that is what the method does. You aren’t calling puts on the dir inside of the #entries call, you are calling it on the return value of File.realdirpath, which, as discussed above, expands the passed in entry.