File.writable? false for DOCUMENTS folder

pgarmyn

Ruby ALLWAYS reports "not writable" for the documents folder on my system, Windows 8.1.
Even if i am administrator. And even if i can write in the directory.
I suppose it is for security reasons (?)


puts ENV["HOME"]  
#output ; # C;/Users/USERNAME
File.writable? ENV["HOME"]
#output ; # true
File.exist? ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents"
#output ; # true
File.writable? ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents"
#output ; # false  ## THIS IS NOT LOGIC because i can write ; 
File.exist? ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents/test"
#output ; # false
Dir.mkdir ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents/test"
#output ; # 0
File.exist? ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents/test"
#output ; # true
File.writable? ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents/test"
#output ; # true

It seems that plugins must ignore this false information ?
Can someone confirm ?

The properties of my documents folder are.

driven

what does it return if you add an additional /

puts File.writable? ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents/"

both variants return true on a mac...

TIG

As you have discovered... File.writable?{file_or_folder_path) only works consistently/effectively on MACs.
On PCs you can add a final ' /' and it might [sometimes] work... but I recommend that you really need to try to briefly write a temporary file to that folder in your own 'trapped' method, to get a consistent and 'correct' result... e.g.

def self.writable?(directory_path=nil)
  return nil unless d=directory_path
  return nil unless File.directory?(d)
  begin
    r=rand.to_s
    r.next! while File.exist?(File.join(d, r)) #unique temp file trap
    t=File.join(d, r)
    f=File.new(t, 'w')
    f.puts("0") #it's made, can we modify it ?
    f.close
    if File.exist?(t)
      begin
        File.delete(t)
        w=true
      rescue #can write it BUT not change it !?
        w=false
      end
    else
      w=false
    end
  rescue #can't write it at all !
    w=false
  end
  return w
end

This test is used thus self.writable?(some_directory_path), which returns true or false if a temporary file can be written to the folder, or it returns nil if no 'directory_path' was passed or the folder doesn't exist and/or it is not a directory !]...

slbaumgartner

@pgarmyn said:

@driven said:

what does it return if you add an additional /

puts File.writable? ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents/"

both variants return true on a mac...

Both false on my Win 8.1

My experience is that 'Documents' is the exception on Windows.
For other folders, the value is consistenly.

Could this be related to the "shims" that recent versions of Windows use to fake some folders?

pgarmyn

@driven said:

what does it return if you add an additional /

puts File.writable? ENV["HOME"]+"/Documents/"

both variants return true on a mac...

Both false on my Win 8.1

My experience is that 'Documents' is the exception on Windows 8.1.
(I don't have non ASCII cars in the path)

For other folders, the value is consistenly.

thomthom

Ruby's file handling under Windows is frustratingly flaky. We have reported a number of issues to the Ruby developers and I'd encourage people to file whatever you find.

I usually wrap file handling in a begin, rescue block instead of testing if a while is writable - simply because Windows file handling is unpredictable.