Path::Class(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Path::Class(3)
NAME
Path::Class - Cross-platform path specification manipulation
SYNOPSIS
use Path::Class;
my $dir = dir('foo', 'bar'); # Path::Class::Dir object
my $file = file('bob', 'file.txt'); # Path::Class::File object
# Stringifies to 'foo/bar' on Unix, 'foo\bar' on Windows, etc.
print "dir: $dir\n";
# Stringifies to 'bob/file.txt' on Unix, 'bob\file.txt' on Windows
print "file: $file\n";
my $subdir = $dir->subdir('baz'); # foo/bar/baz
my $parent = $subdir->parent; # foo/bar
my $parent2 = $parent->parent; # foo
my $dir2 = $file->dir; # bob
# Work with foreign paths
use Path::Class qw(foreign_file foreign_dir);
my $file = foreign_file('Mac', ':foo:file.txt');
print $file->dir; # :foo:
print $file->as_foreign('Win32'); # foo\file.txt
# Interact with the underlying filesystem:
# $dir_handle is an IO::Dir object
my $dir_handle = $dir->open or die "Can't read $dir: $!";
# $file_handle is an IO::File object
my $file_handle = $file->open($mode) or die "Can't read $file: $!";
DESCRIPTION
"Path::Class" is a module for manipulation of file and directory
specifications (strings describing their locations, like
'/home/ken/foo.txt' or 'C:\Windows\Foo.txt') in a cross-platform
manner. It supports pretty much every platform Perl runs on, including
Unix, Windows, Mac, VMS, Epoc, Cygwin, OS/2, and NetWare.
The well-known module "File::Spec" also provides this service, but it's
sort of awkward to use well, so people sometimes avoid it, or use it in
a way that won't actually work properly on platforms significantly
different than the ones they've tested their code on.
In fact, "Path::Class" uses "File::Spec" internally, wrapping all the
unsightly details so you can concentrate on your application code.
Whereas "File::Spec" provides functions for some common path
manipulations, "Path::Class" provides an object-oriented model of the
world of path specifications and their underlying semantics.
"File::Spec" doesn't create any objects, and its classes represent the
different ways in which paths must be manipulated on various platforms
(not a very intuitive concept). "Path::Class" creates objects
representing files and directories, and provides methods that relate
them to each other. For instance, the following "File::Spec" code:
my $absolute = File::Spec->file_name_is_absolute(
File::Spec->catfile( @dirs, $file )
);
can be written using "Path::Class" as
my $absolute = Path::Class::File->new( @dirs, $file )->is_absolute;
or even as
my $absolute = file( @dirs, $file )->is_absolute;
Similar readability improvements should happen all over the place when
using "Path::Class".
Using "Path::Class" can help solve real problems in your code too - for
instance, how many people actually take the "volume" (like "C:" on
Windows) into account when writing "File::Spec"-using code? I thought
not. But if you use "Path::Class", your file and directory objects
will know what volumes they refer to and do the right thing.
The guts of the "Path::Class" code live in the "Path::Class::File" and
"Path::Class::Dir" modules, so please see those modules' documentation
for more details about how to use them.
EXPORT
The following functions are exported by default.
file
A synonym for "Path::Class::File->new".
dir A synonym for "Path::Class::Dir->new".
If you would like to prevent their export, you may explicitly pass an
empty list to perl's "use", i.e. "use Path::Class ()".
The following are exported only on demand.
foreign_file
A synonym for "Path::Class::File->new_foreign".
foreign_dir
A synonym for "Path::Class::Dir->new_foreign".
Notes on Cross-Platform Compatibility
Although it is much easier to write cross-platform-friendly code with
this module than with "File::Spec", there are still some issues to be
aware of.
o Some platforms, notably VMS and some older versions of DOS (I
think), all filenames must have an extension. Thus if you create a
file called foo/bar and then ask for a list of files in the
directory foo, you may find a file called bar. instead of the bar
you were expecting. Thus it might be a good idea to use an
extension in the first place.
AUTHOR
Ken Williams, KWILLIAMS@cpan.org
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) Ken Williams. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
SEE ALSO
Path::Class::Dir(3), Path::Class::File(3), File::Spec(3)
perl v5.10.0 2006-12-24 Path::Class(3)
Mac OS X 10.6 - Generated Thu Sep 17 20:14:34 CDT 2009