Imagine that you have '/tmp/a/b' folder containing 'c' file '/tmp/a/b' asFileReference ensureCreateDirectory. '/tmp/a/b/c' asFileReference writeStreamDo: [ :s | s nextPutAll: 'contents' ]. now there are three ways how you can see the contents of the c file x := '/tmp/a/b/c.txt' asFileReference. y := '/tmp' asFileReference / 'a' / 'b' / 'c.txt'. z := '/tmp' asFileReference / 'a/b/c.txt'. They clearly all point to the same file: x contents = y contents "true" x contents = z contents "true" Yet the last option is different x = y "true" x = z "false" Why is that? Because the parent is different: x parent pathString "'/tmp/a/b'" y parent pathString "'/tmp/a/b'" z parent pathString "'/tmp'" So the parent is based on how the reference was constructed, not what it is actually pointing to, which is stupid. Is this a bug? Is this a (nasty) expected behavior? Peter