UriComponents.Path documentation implies LocalPath is always returned, but this is only true for file:// URIs #13039

Type of issue

Missing information

Description

UriComponents.Path documentation implies LocalPath is always returned, but this is only true for file:// URIs`

The documentation for UriComponents.Path currently says:

Path: The LocalPath data.

This wording suggests (by omission) that LocalPath is always returned, regardless of URI scheme.
However, this is only true for file:// URIs.
For all non-file URIs (e.g., http://, https://, ftp://), UriComponents.Path returns the URL path, not LocalPath.

This leads to incorrect expectations about path formatting, especially regarding Windows-style backslashes.

Below is a minimal reproducible example demonstrating the actual behavior.

Reproduction Code

var http = new Uri("https://example.com/a/b/c.txt");
var file = new Uri("file://server/share/c.txt");

Console.WriteLine(http.GetComponents(UriComponents.Path, UriFormat.Unescaped));
Console.WriteLine(http.LocalPath);

Console.WriteLine(file.GetComponents(UriComponents.Path, UriFormat.Unescaped));
Console.WriteLine(file.LocalPath);

// The example displays the following output:
// a/b/c.txt
// /a/b/c.txt
// share/c.txt
// \\server\share\c.txt

Page URL

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.uricomponents?view=net-10.0

Content source URL

https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet-api-docs-temp/blob/live/xml/System/UriComponents.xml

Document Version Independent Id

3d232e61-f2cd-8a85-f974-beb7ecade43c

Platform Id

be57ca08-cf67-4666-bdce-208a89903395

Article author

@dotnet-bot