File IO, Syntax for network file path access

Posted by Fletchling on Sat 02 Dec 2006 09:49 PM — 11 posts, 31,635 views.

Fletchling Australia Sat 02 Dec 2006 09:49 PM #0

Using various IO functions, I'd like to access a file stored on a network drive.

Currently, I have a file called (for instance) sw.txt in the default folder MC accesses for logs and so on. This works well, but is only local.

using something like;
***script lines***
for line in io.lines ("sw.txt") do
print (line)
***more script lines***

The file(s) in question may be stored on a server called "aardsp" in a folder called "texthelps", so the path is \\aardsp\texthelps\sw.txt. I've tried a number of combinations but I can't get the IO function to get the file from anywhere other than the local file, ideas very much appreciated.

David Haley USA Sat 02 Dec 2006 10:53 PM #1

Lua's IO probably doesn't support opening network paths.

Try mapping a network drive so that you can get a proper drive-based path. Then Lua will probably be happier with it.

Fletchling Australia Sun 03 Dec 2006 12:14 AM #2

Sure mapping the drive will help, but I still can't explicitly direct mush to consistently grab a file from any directory other than that currently the default.. even somewhere on local c:\...somewhere.

I should have been clearer in the original question...

David Haley USA Sun 03 Dec 2006 12:58 AM #3

Oh, so you can't get any other path?

Are you properly escaping your backslashes? Something like \t means a literal tab; if you want to say, e.g., c:\tmp you have to write c:\\tmp.

Fletchling Australia Sun 03 Dec 2006 01:48 AM #4

Assuming a file at C:\text\sw.txt

using io function (first line only here);
for line in io.lines ("C:\\text\\sw.txt") do

gives this error;
[string "Alias: "]:1: bad argument #1 to 'lines' (C: extsw.txt: Invalid argument)
stack traceback:
[C]: in function 'lines'
[string "Alias: "]:1: in main chunk

I'm missing something obvious I'm sure, appreciate your help again.

David Haley USA Sun 03 Dec 2006 01:54 AM #5

for line in io.lines("c:\\tmp\\delete_me\\phil-151-defs.txt") do
    print(line)
end

That worked for me, but outside of MUSHclient.

You can also try double-escaping, because MUSHclient might be processing one level of escaping. Try \\\\ instead of just \\.

EDIT: added double escaping.

Fletchling Australia Sun 03 Dec 2006 02:09 AM #6

Note in the previous post, I'd used \\ instead of \.
**stumped for now**

David Haley USA Sun 03 Dec 2006 02:18 AM #7

Oops. Looks like the forum escaped the slashes for me... I edited my post and fixed it. Please look at it again.

Fletchling Australia Sun 03 Dec 2006 02:25 AM #8

Awesome, 4 backslashes works, thanks Ksilyan.

Now snugglepot and cuddlepie can share the same map, quest and speedwalk files, she'll be happy about that.

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Sun 03 Dec 2006 04:47 AM #9

You can save a lot of backslashes by using forward slashes, that seems to work:


for line in io.lines ("c:/tmp/delete_me/foo.txt") do
    print(line)
end

David Haley USA Sun 03 Dec 2006 05:45 AM #10

Yes, indeed, Windows also is happy taking forward slashes. I probably should have mentioned that. :-)