MackySoft.FileSystem 0.2.1

MackySoft.FileSystem

MackySoft.FileSystem provides guarded values for physical filesystem path text. It validates raw text once at an input boundary, then carries structural path facts through typed contracts.

Install an exact package version:

dotnet add package MackySoft.FileSystem --version <version>

Guarded values

Use Parse when invalid input is exceptional and TryParse or TryResolve when an adapter must map PathValidationFailureKind to its own diagnostics:

var root = AbsolutePath.Parse(rootText);

if (!ContainedPath.TryResolve(root, inputText, out var path, out var failure))
{
    return ReportInvalidInput(failure.Kind, failure.Message);
}

OpenForRead(path.Target.Value);

There are no implicit conversions to or from string. Convert input text through a factory and access Value explicitly at a display, serialization, or System.IO boundary.

Raw text is classified and normalized once inside the selected factory. Operations that combine an AbsolutePath with a RootRelativePath, or derive a relative value from an established containment relationship, use those existing guarantees and do not route the result back through a raw-text parser.

PathValidationFailureKind is a CLR classification for branching in typed code. Its enum member names and PathValidationFailure.ToString() output are diagnostics, not stable external text tokens. A transport adapter that exposes text must define and own its vocabulary separately.

Running-platform lexical identity

Absolute paths are not converted into a portable common-path string. One internal policy applies the lexical rules of the operating system running the process to separator normalization, root recognition, fully-qualified checks, equality, hashing, and containment:

• On Windows, / and \ are directory separators, normalized absolute output uses \, drive roots and structurally complete UNC roots are preserved, drive-relative and current-drive-relative input is rejected where an absolute or ordinary relative path is required, and path identity is case-insensitive without rewriting the retained casing. A UNC root must contain non-empty, non-navigation server and share components that use the supported ordinary path characters. Host reachability, DNS or NetBIOS naming, and remote-provider share-creation policy are not validated. Ordinary path segments outside the UNC root reject control characters, *, ?, ", <, >, |, and colon outside an ASCII-letter drive designator. GetFullPathNameW evaluates relative components and endpoint trimming first; before this package removes a trailing separator, it rejects any component that still ends in a space or period while a separator follows it. This includes an ordinary trailing component and a UNC share before a descendant or trailing separator. A separator-free final component can normalize to a stable endpoint, and a component removed by navigation is absent from the guarded result. Consequently, every non-root AbsolutePath has an identity-preserving immediate parent and TryGetParent returns false only for a filesystem root. Alternate-data-stream syntax, device-namespace paths, and reserved DOS device names (CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, CONIN$, CONOUT$, COM1–COM9, COM¹/COM²/COM³, LPT1–LPT9, and LPT¹/LPT²/LPT³, including extensions) are outside this package's ordinary-path contract. Normalization does not verify existence or convert short and long names; short-name-looking segments such as PROGRA~1 therefore retain their text and casing.
• On Unix, / is the directory separator and filesystem root, \, whitespace, and control characters other than NUL remain ordinary filename characters, and path identity is case-sensitive.

This ordinary-name boundary follows Microsoft's Win32 naming guidance; the normalization order and separator-free endpoint distinction follow the .NET path-normalization trim rules.

RootRelativePath stores recognized directory separators as /; it does not reinterpret a character that the running operating system treats as part of a filename. On Windows, the same post-normalization check applies after relative components and endpoint trimming are evaluated. An input whose final ordinary segment disappears entirely, including . , .. , or ..., is invalid; only exact . and .. are navigation segments. A component removed by navigation is accepted only when it does not remain in the normalized value. A retained component ending in a space or period is rejected when a separator follows it, including a trailing separator; a separator-free final component can normalize to a stable endpoint. The resulting root-relative value therefore resolves under a boundary with the same lexical identity and cannot bypass the parent-closure invariant when combined with an AbsolutePath.

These are operating-system lexical rules, not observations of a mounted volume. The values do not detect whether an individual volume or directory uses different case-sensitivity behavior.

Physical state is not retained

These values do not access the filesystem and do not guarantee:

• path existence;
• file, directory, symbolic-link, or special-node kind;
• permissions or accessibility;
• inode identity;
• identity after symbolic-link resolution;
• containment after symbolic-link resolution.

Observe any required physical state immediately before the operation that depends on it. When a race must be prevented, rely on an opened handle or the result of the operation itself.

The package intentionally contains no read or write operations, atomic publication, temporary-node cleanup, locking, access-control handling, storage layout, or general-purpose filesystem interface.

Use the MackySoft.FileSystem.Physical companion package, released at the same version, when an application needs product-independent entry observation, link-policy resolution, link-resolved containment snapshots, or complete single-file publication through a same-directory move or replacement.