Relative Include not working...

[sleepymuse]

 

Just burned the last two hours of my life trying to figure out how relative include statements work in autoit. I wanted to share how I resolved it here in case anyone googles a similar issue in the future. 

Example:

working on test.au3 in the following path:

C:/Users/Bill/autoit/project/test.au3

if I want to import the file "myfile.au3" which is in the project directory (same as test.au3), I can do:

#include "myfile.au3"

or I can use

#include ".\myfile.au3"

as far as I can tell, these two lines are equivalent. the "." means "the directory that this file is currently in", in this case the file is test.au3, which is in the "project" directory.

Now, let's say I want to include "myotherfile.au3" instead, which is in the "autoit" directory. I can do:

#include "..\myotherfile.au3"

the ".." means "one level higher relative to the directory that this file is currently in". 

Finally, let's say I want to include "twohoursofmylifegone.au3", which resides in the "Bill" directory

Intuitively, you might think the following code would work:

#include "...\twohoursofmylifegone.au3"

Especially when the documentation says:

Quote

If "..." is used, the filename is taken to be relative to the current script.

But this would give you an error. The correct syntax is:

#include "..\..\twohoursofmylifegone.au3"

Which kinda makes sense, but only kinda. Apparently this period syntax is a common convention, but if you don't know this... hopefully you were lucky enough to find this page. Any way the docs could be updated to make this more clear?

[ioa747]

#include "src/slice.au3"
#include "src/split.au3"

#include "../Udf.au3"
#include "../../Udf.au3"

relative to the current script.

edit:
oops even though it works with / , the correct syntax from the help file is with \ , as you describe

#include "src\Udf.au3"

#include "..\Udf.au3"
#include "..\..\Udf.au3"

  to the forum

Edited April 27, 2023 by ioa747