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Path::Class

Name Path::Class
Version 0.37
Located at /usr/local/share/perl5
File /usr/local/share/perl5/Path/Class.pm
Is Core No
Search CPAN for this module Path::Class
Documentation Path::Class
Module Details Path::Class

NAME

Path::Class - Cross-platform path specification manipulation


VERSION

version 0.37


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 the File::Spec manpage 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 the Path::Class::File manpage and the Path::Class::Dir manpage 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.

tempdir
Create a new Path::Class::Dir instance pointed to temporary directory.
  my $temp = Path::Class::tempdir(CLEANUP => 1);

A synonym for Path::Class::Dir->new(File::Temp::tempdir(@_)).


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.

  • On 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

the Path::Class::Dir manpage, the Path::Class::File manpage, the File::Spec manpage

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