Feature: Recognize Tilde as %USERPROFILE%

[awderh]

What feature or improvement do you think would benefit Files?

The ~ (tilde) character is interpreted by *NIX shells as the current logged in user's home directory (HOME env on *NIX). On Windows, HOME (afaik) is USERPROFILE. Given the popularity of UNIX/LINUX, this feature may be highly desirable from a user perspective.

Requirements

• This proposal will accomplish *NIX like tilde/~ expansion, as defined:
  • The feature only applies to the first path component in a sequence of path components
  • The feature is functionally defined as a substitution of ~ to %USERPROFILE%
  • The feature shall then forward this substitution to the underlying API

Files Version

3.0.15.0

Windows Version

10.0.22631 Build 22631

Comments

No response

[yaira2]

Thank you for your feedback

[awderh]

I was looking through the source, and it seems like there is already functionality with ~/:

Files/src/Files.App/ViewModels/UserControls/ToolbarViewModel.cs

Line 707 in c7c8dd5

currentInput = StorageFileExtensions.GetResolvedPath(currentInput, isFtp);

Which eventually references:

Files/src/Files.App/Utils/Storage/Helpers/StorageFileExtensions.cs

Lines 303 to 317 in c7c8dd5

	private static string GetPathWithoutEnvironmentVariable(string path)
	{
	if (path.StartsWith("~\\", StringComparison.Ordinal))
	path = $"{Constants.UserEnvironmentPaths.HomePath}{path.Remove(0, 1)}";
	path = path.Replace("%temp%", Constants.UserEnvironmentPaths.TempPath, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
	path = path.Replace("%tmp%", Constants.UserEnvironmentPaths.TempPath, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
	path = path.Replace("%localappdata%", Constants.UserEnvironmentPaths.LocalAppDataPath, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
	path = path.Replace("%homepath%", Constants.UserEnvironmentPaths.HomePath, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
	return Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(path);
	}

This is verified working; although there isn't any indication in the suggestions dropdown:

However, with USERPROFILE, there are some (but not all) suggestions:

(Note: my username is Home )

Anyways, I'll modify the helper and submit a PR. Impact will be here and here, which I see as OK.

Maybe suggestions can be fixed in a different issue.

[yaira2]

(Note: my username is Home )

Like a pro 😄

[yaira2]

This is verified working; although there isn't any indication in the suggestions dropdown:

It works for me but only if I start typing

[awderh]

This is verified working; although there isn't any indication in the suggestions dropdown:

It works for me but only if I start typing

Confirmed:

However, and this is a "me"/*nix-user issue, it doesn't work with forward slashes:

There is a path normalization helper, but it doesn't include conversion of / to \, presumably for generic URL support?

Anyways, CheckPathInputAsync does normalize forward-slashes to backslashes:

Files/src/Files.App/ViewModels/UserControls/ToolbarViewModel.cs

Lines 688 to 694 in c7c8dd5

	if (currentInput.Contains('/') && !isFtp)
	currentInput = currentInput.Replace("/", "\\", StringComparison.Ordinal);
	currentInput = currentInput.Replace("\\\\", "\\", StringComparison.Ordinal);
	if (currentInput.StartsWith('\\') && !currentInput.StartsWith("\\\\", StringComparison.Ordinal))
	currentInput = currentInput.Insert(0, "\\");

But the normalization isn't included for suggestions.

I've submitted a PR to address this: #14171