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> rdiff-backup (written in Python)

"If you have ever needed to work with UNC paths in a Python script for Windows, you might have experienced the same dilemma that we did. What’s the problem? Python has virtually no support for UNC."

http://developer.covenanteyes.com/unc-paths-with-python/

"As tiny as our minority might be, we wanted to deal with these difficulties once and for all. I introduce to you the win_unc library."

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Hmm. This looks like it deals with UNC paths. I think the parent is asking about what are sometimes called "Win32 file namespace paths" - or at least defined as such by the MSDN article that is canonical https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa3...

These are sometimes erroneously called UNC paths because, well, they _look_ like UNC paths. But UNC paths are used to refer to a path on another host. (In fact, you can specify UNC paths using the Win32 file namespace using the `\\?\UNC\server\resource` mechanism.)

It looks like win_unc will help with UNC, but it looks from a quick glance that it will not help with `\\?\` paths.

I've never used it. If it doesn't work and somebody really needs to have "\\?" in Python and doesn't want to develop the Python extension in C himself, I'd be willing to develop it, but for money, serious consulting rates.

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