forward slash '/' as file path separator in r

Question

'/' could be used as file path separator in R. like:

path <- 'c:/users/john'
setwd(path)

However, the following also works:

path <- 'c:////users///john'
setwd(path)

It seems that the number of slash does not affect the above statement. I cannot find any rules about this. Does anyone have any clue on this? Thanks!

Answer 1

This is not R specific but depends on the operating system. At least for UNIX based platforms there is an official definition for this behaviour. In the Single UNIX Specification/3.267 Pathname you can read the following:

... Multiple successive slash characters are considered to be the same as one slash, except for the case of exactly two leading slash characters. ...