Let me rephrase my question to be more specific, and I wouldn't bother the reader by referring to Windows/UNIX platform.

this is my question:
I have the following directory pattern (Dir1 is the parent directory, and the rest are the child files/subdirectories):

Dir1
file1
file2
.file3
subdir1
.subdir2

the following code will go through the Dir1, and it will fail in creating the "path" when it reaches ".file3" or ".subdir2"

boost::filesystem:ath dir1_path(filepath.c_str());

How should I create a path to a directory that (for example) has the following path?
/root/my_docs/pgg/.file1

filesystem:ath works just fine if I had to deal with (/root/my_docs/pgg/file1) instead of (/root/my_docs/pgg/.file1) !!!
apparently when the file/directory starts with '.', I cannot get filesystem:ath to behave properly.

please advise,
thanks,
Rudy