Converting Hardcoded Pathnames

The next step on my adventure with Pericles is to convert all of the hard-coded pathnames from F:\Web to /var/www (as well as any other hardcoded paths I find.) I've been pretty careful not to use hard-coded names in unnecessary places, putting most of them in simple configuration include files and so forth, because I knew from the beginning that this day would come.

I typed grep and it turns out that I have a convenient version of Turbo grep (comes with any Insprise/Borland product of the last decade), but GNU grep should work just as well. The syntax for turbo grep that I'm using is:

grep -di "f:" *.ph*>hardcoded

I'm using *.ph* because I am searching all *.php and *.ph files. I typically use *.ph for include files instead of *.inc, the -di means search subdirectories and ignore case, and I keep my data and web files on the F: drive. I'm redirecting the output to a file named hardcoded so that I can use it as a checklist. I'll do the same thing again but, like this:

grep -di "c:" *.ph*>>hardcoded

To get all references to anything on the C: drive (I know I refer to an executable font conversion tool from one place, for example.) and the double angle brackets mean to append the result to my previous file instead of overwriting.

Now that I have my checklist, here's the plan:

I want to convert all the code while still on the Windows box to support Linux based on a single configuration change. I will make an include file with one function in it that takes any path given as a parameter and if it starts with /var/www, to convert it back to F:/Web. This will allow Linux to be the native language with a "patch" for Windows support. This should have been part of my plan from day 1 (two years ago), but it didn't occur to me. The idea is that I can replace this function with an "identity" function such as: function linpath($a) { return $a; } in order to use raw Linux paths instead of Windows.

I will also do similar adaptations on a situational basis as I run into any F: or C: references that can't be solved with the above include file.

I anticipate some difficulties with file permissions since Apache on Linux is more secure than Apache on windows. My main resolution to this will be to consolidate the affected items that need to be accessed into consistent areas that the Apache process has access to read. If I have any chroot issues, I can overcome them with the use of mount --bind as explained in my article on setting up FTP.

This path translation will probably be the most tedious task in the Pericles project. I'll report back when I have finished.

4:18 P.M. - Upon more deliberate consideration, I have determined to abandon this undertaking and instead to change the paths manually. Why? There only seems to be about one per website, with an odd exception here or there. The trouble crops up when deciding exactly how to include the file with the path mapping function without using a path for itself. Furthermore, even if I install it into the default includes path, it seems silly to include a file only to help correctly include another file. May as well just change them when the time comes.