.hledger.journal file overwritten on -f path typo

On Windows, the following command will overwrite the file Documents\.hledger.journal with an empty file. I sometimes make the typo with extra period in the path and I have to restore from backup. Version tested 1.14.1.

C:\Users\klacansky>hledger -f Documents.\.hledger.journal add
Creating hledger journal file C:\Users\klacansky\Documents.\.hledger.journal.
The hledger journal file "C:\Users\klacansky\Documents.\.hledger.journal" was not found.
Please create it first, eg with "hledger add" or a text editor.
Or, specify an existing journal file with -f or LEDGER_FILE.

[simonmichael]

Wow, thanks for the report. Would you be interested in debugging further ? Help available in http://irc.hledger.org.

On IRC, we determined the issue is the directory ending with a period '.', windows ignores it, but hledger does not, thus it will report the file does not exists, and proceed to create a new file '.hledger.journal'. However, when creating that file, windows removes the period at the end of the directory name, and thus overwrites the original file.

[alerque]

👏👏 Windows! When will you learn?

[simonmichael]

Ideas for resolution:

• mention this issue for windows users in docs
• on windows, check each part of the file path for a trailing period and warn or give an error
• report this issue to the appropriate upstream haskell lib (base ?) and do the warning/error there

[simonmichael]

More or less related:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4075753/how-to-delete-a-folder-that-name-ended-with-a-dot
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11681207/how-to-create-a-filename-with-a-trailing-period-in-windows

[simonmichael]

I recommend prioritizing it; I were not to keep backup, it would really be upsetting