[support] file_create_url() breaks some sites

[Pierre Rineau]

Hi

I have some problèmes with the CCK image field module. This is not because of the module, but because of the core file_create_url() function.

I explain:

<?php
function file_create_url($path) {
  // Strip file_directory_path from $path. We only include relative paths in urls.
  if (strpos($path, file_directory_path() . '/') === 0) {
    $path = trim(substr($path, strlen(file_directory_path())), '\\/');
  }
  switch (variable_get('file_downloads', FILE_DOWNLOADS_PUBLIC)) {
    case FILE_DOWNLOADS_PUBLIC:
      return $GLOBALS['base_url'] .'/'. file_directory_path() .'/'. str_replace('\\', '/', $path);
    case FILE_DOWNLOADS_PRIVATE:
      return url('system/files/'. $path, NULL, NULL, TRUE);
  }
}
?>

This give me an asbolute URL because of the use of $GLOBALS['url'].

If we look at the url() function, we have a boolean parameter $absolute, which is default setted to FALSE.
If false is selected, , the method use base_path() as base for the url, else it uses the global $base_url.

Is this normal that drupal devs made the choice of always put absolute URL for files ?
Is this a bug ?
If not, why ?

The problem for me is that I use drupals behind proxies (they are in a company LAN, using internal DNS which
are not accessible from outside). When giving absolute pathes, the site give me, through the proxy an internal
DNS which does not work.