os: Create does not return error on filename with colon(:) on Windows

[tpng]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?
go version go1.5.1 windows/386

What operating system and processor architecture are you using?
Windows 7 64-bit

What did you do?

package main

import (
    "log"
    "os"
)

func main() {
    f, err := os.Create("test:.txt")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer f.Close()
    if _, err := f.Write([]byte("testing")); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Sorry for not using playground, still got 403 in Hong Kong.

What did you expect to see?
: is invalid character for file name on Windows.
Expected error on os.Create or f.Write.

What did you see instead?
An empty file named test is created after running the program, without any errors returned.

[davecheney]

I think what you are seeing is NTFS alternative files streams, you've created a file called test, and in the alternative stream the sting "testing" is written.

I think windows explorer doesn't show this properly, but should be able to reopen the same file you created and check for the contents.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2013/03/24/alternate-data-streams-in-ntfs.aspx

On 23 Oct 2015, at 20:43, Benny Ng notifications@github.com wrote:

What version of Go are you using (go version)?
go version go1.5.1 windows/386

What operating system and processor architecture are you using?
Windows 7 64-bit

What did you do?

package main

import (
"log"
"os"
)

func main() {
f, err := os.Create("test:.txt")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
defer f.Close()
if _, err := f.Write([]byte("testing")); err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
}
Sorry for not using playground, still got 403 in Hong Kong.

What did you expect to see?
: is invalid character for file name on Windows.
Expected error on os.Create or f.Write.

What did you see instead?
An empty file named test is created after running the program, without any errors returned.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[tpng]

Wow, that's just eye opening, thanks so much for the response.

By opening the file using the same file name, I can read back the same content.

Since it's a platform-specific feature instead, I will close the issue.
Please feel free to reopen if there's something we can do, thanks again!

[davecheney]

I think we'll have to chalk this up to a feature :)

It's only available on Windows, using NTFS.

On 23 Oct 2015, at 22:31, Benny Ng notifications@github.com wrote:

Wow, that's just eye opening, thanks so much for the response.

By opening the file using the same file name, I can read back the same content.

Since it's a platform-specific feature instead, I will close the issue.
Please feel free to reopen if there's something we can do, thanks again!

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.