Mark Drew (Redux)- cf_etc...

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Mark Drew (Redux)- cf_etc...

Strange expandPath bug in ColdFusion 8

January 23, 2009 ·

I found something that I am not sure if it is a bug or a "feature" whilst developing some functionality in our CMS. Essentially imagine you have the following directory layout:

  • index.cfm
  • level1/
    • level2/
      • index.cfm
In the root index.cfm I want to expand the path to level2, that is, get the full folder path of "path2", you would do something like:
<cfset mypath1 = "/level1/level2">
   <cfdump var="#expandPath(mypath1)#">

Which (in my case) returns: /Library/WebServer/Documents/scratch/level1/level2

BUT if you add the forward slash to the path:
<cfset mypath2 = "/level1/level2/">
   <cfdump var="#expandPath(mypath2)#">
You get: /Library/WebServer/Documents/scratch/level1/level2/index.cfm/ ?!
Where did "index.cfm/" come from? I can understand how that might be useful in 0.1% of cases but not when you are simply trying to find the path to the folder. If you remove the index.cfm from the folder it all works fine.

Shome mishtake, shurely?

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Tags: coldfusion

7 responses

  • 1 Ben Nadel // Jan 23, 2009 at 5:59 PM

    That's really weird!

  • 2 tony petruzzi // Jan 23, 2009 at 6:53 PM

    what webserver and operating system are you running? I just tried this out on my cf server running cf8.01 at level hf801-71557 on windows 2003 (all patches installed) and IIS.

    this bug was not reproducible.

    it could also be a mapping issue.

  • 3 Mark Mandel // Jan 23, 2009 at 9:49 PM

    Mark,

    I've totally seen this before.

    I'm willing to guess you're on Apache as a webserver?

    If I remember correct, expandPath() will somehow look to your default webserver page mappings, and attempt to append their values to your expandPath(). It's weird, and bizarre, and I don't know WHY, but it's definitely reproducible.

  • 4 Gary Funk // Jan 24, 2009 at 5:37 PM

    Under IIS:

    D:\www\rk7\level1\level2\

    Under Apache:

    D:\www\rk7\level1\level2\index.cfm\

  • 5 Pierre Paridans // Jan 26, 2009 at 9:39 AM

    Could it be related to mod_rewrite (which is only available under Apache of course)?

  • 6 Dennis Belmont // Mar 2, 2010 at 3:52 PM

    I've got an even stranger one. I've got a site in a virtual hosting environment. When I'm using ExpandPath(), it's returning the path to the *ColdFusion* server, not to my website. When I should be getting this:

    D:\inetpub\ensco

    I'm getting this:

    C:\ColdFusion8\wwwroot\

    Has anyone seen this before? Any ideas?

  • 7 david // Aug 17, 2010 at 9:45 PM

    Found the fix over @ http://kaijaks.co.uk/blog/nick/2009/04/30/expandpath-bug-in-coldfusion-8

    Add a "/" mapping in CFADmin to the web root of your site

    Made my Apache expand path errors go away