From e140d29c725c9fe419a54198f0a3a81c05c3975f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Huanyi Xie <74809554+xiehuanyi@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2026 15:39:27 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] Preserve filename whitespace when combining an empty base

---
 fs/path.py         | 2 +-
 tests/test_path.py | 6 ++++++
 tests/test_walk.py | 7 +++++++
 3 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/fs/path.py b/fs/path.py
index 0bfa5149..ee81635f 100644
--- a/fs/path.py
+++ b/fs/path.py
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ def combine(path1, path2):
 
     """
     if not path1:
-        return path2.lstrip()
+        return path2
     return "{}/{}".format(path1.rstrip("/"), path2.lstrip("/"))
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_path.py b/tests/test_path.py
index 3ab778ed..c92cb1e1 100644
--- a/tests/test_path.py
+++ b/tests/test_path.py
@@ -123,6 +123,12 @@ def test_combine(self):
         self.assertEqual(combine("", "bar"), "bar")
         self.assertEqual(combine("foo", "bar"), "foo/bar")
 
+    def test_combine_preserves_leading_whitespace(self):
+        for path in (" report.txt", "\tfile", "  directory/file"):
+            self.assertEqual(combine("", path), path)
+            self.assertEqual(combine("foo", path), "foo/" + path)
+        self.assertEqual(combine("", "/file"), "/file")
+
     def test_parts(self):
         self.assertEqual(parts("/"), ["/"])
         self.assertEqual(parts(""), ["./"])
diff --git a/tests/test_walk.py b/tests/test_walk.py
index e0146f2d..c5ad5884 100644
--- a/tests/test_walk.py
+++ b/tests/test_walk.py
@@ -25,6 +25,13 @@ def test_on_error_invalid(self):
         with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
             walk.Walker(on_error="nope")
 
+    def test_files_preserve_leading_whitespace_at_relative_root(self):
+        with MemoryFS() as fs:
+            fs.writetext(" report.txt", "content")
+            paths = list(self.walker.files(fs, path=""))
+            self.assertEqual(paths, [" report.txt"])
+            self.assertEqual(fs.readtext(paths[0]), "content")
+
 
 class TestBoundWalkerBase(unittest.TestCase):
     def setUp(self):