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std.file

Utilities for manipulating files and scanning directories. Functions in this module handle files as a unit, e.g., read or write one file at a time. For opening files and manipulating them via handles refer to module std.stdio.

License:
Boost License 1.0.

Authors:
Walter Bright, Andrei Alexandrescu, Jonathan M Davis

Source:
std/file.d

class FileException: object.Exception;
Exception thrown for file I/O errors.

immutable uint errno;
OS error code.

this(in char[] name, in char[] msg, string file = __FILE__, size_t line = __LINE__);
Constructor which takes an error message.

Parameters:
char[] name Name of file for which the error occurred.
char[] msg Message describing the error.
string file The file where the error occurred.
size_t line The line where the error occurred.

this(in char[] name, uint errno = .errno, string file = __FILE__, size_t line = __LINE__);
Constructor which takes the error number (GetLastError in Windows, errno in Posix).

Parameters:
char[] name Name of file for which the error occurred.
msg Message describing the error.
string file The file where the error occurred.
size_t line The line where the error occurred.

void[] read(in char[] name, size_t upTo = (ulong).max);
Read entire contents of file name and returns it as an untyped array. If the file size is larger than upTo, only upTo bytes are read.

Example:
import std.file, std.stdio;
void main()
{
   auto bytes = cast(ubyte[]) read("filename", 5);
   if (bytes.length == 5)
       writefln("The fifth byte of the file is 0x%x", bytes[4]);
}

Returns:
Untyped array of bytes read.

Throws:
FileException on error.

S readText(S = string)(in char[] name);
Read and validates (using std.utf.validate) a text file. S can be a type of array of characters of any width and constancy. No width conversion is performed; if the width of the characters in file name is different from the width of elements of S, validation will fail.

Returns:
Array of characters read.

Throws:
FileException on file error, UTFException on UTF decoding error.

Example:
enforce(system("echo abc>deleteme") == 0);
scope(exit) remove("deleteme");
enforce(chomp(readText("deleteme")) == "abc");

void write(in char[] name, const void[] buffer);
Write buffer to file name.

Throws:
FileException on error.

Example:
import std.file;
void main()
{
   int[] a = [ 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 ];
   write("filename", a);
   assert(cast(int[]) read("filename") == a);
}

void append(in char[] name, in void[] buffer);
Appends buffer to file name.

Throws:
FileException on error.

Example:
import std.file;
void main()
{
   int[] a = [ 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 ];
   write("filename", a);
   int[] b = [ 13, 21 ];
   append("filename", b);
   assert(cast(int[]) read("filename") == a ~ b);
}

void rename(in char[] from, in char[] to);
Rename file from to to.

Throws:
FileException on error.

void remove(in char[] name);
Delete file name.

Throws:
FileException on error.

ulong getSize(in char[] name);
Get size of file name in bytes.

Throws:
FileException on error (e.g., file not found).

void getTimes(in char[] name, out SysTime fileAccessTime, out SysTime fileModificationTime);
Get the access and modified times of file name.

Parameters:
char[] name File name to get times for.
SysTime fileAccessTime Time the file was last accessed.
SysTime fileModificationTime Time the file was last modified.

Throws:
FileException on error.

void getTimesWin(in char[] name, out SysTime fileCreationTime, out SysTime fileAccessTime, out SysTime fileModificationTime);
This function is Windows-Only.

Get creation/access/modified times of file name.

This is the same as getTimes except that it also gives you the file creation time - which isn't possible on Posix systems.

Parameters:
char[] name File name to get times for.
SysTime fileCreationTime Time the file was created.
SysTime fileAccessTime Time the file was last accessed.
SysTime fileModificationTime Time the file was last modified.

Throws:
FileException on error.

SysTime timeLastModified(in char[] name);
Returns the time that the given file was last modified.

Throws:
FileException if the given file does not exist.

SysTime timeLastModified(in char[] name, SysTime returnIfMissing);
Returns the time that the given file was last modified. If the file does not exist, returns returnIfMissing.

A frequent usage pattern occurs in build automation tools such as make or ant. To check whether file target must be rebuilt from file source (i.e., target is older than source or does not exist), use the comparison below. The code throws a FileException if source does not exist (as it should). On the other hand, the SysTime.min default makes a non-existing target seem infinitely old so the test correctly prompts building it.

Parameters:
char[] name The name of the file to get the modification time for.
SysTime returnIfMissing The time to return if the given file does not exist.

Examples:
if(timeLastModified(source) >= timeLastModified(target, SysTime.min))
{
    // must (re)build
}
else
{
    // target is up-to-date
}

@property bool exists(in char[] name);
Returns whether the given file (or directory) exists.

uint getAttributes(in char[] name);
Returns the attributes of the given file.

Note that the file attributes on Windows and Posix systems are completely different. On Windows, they're what is returned by GetFileAttributes, whereas on Posix systems, they're the st_mode value which is part of the stat struct gotten by calling the stat function.

On Posix systems, if the given file is a symbolic link, then attributes are the attributes of the file pointed to by the symbolic link.

Parameters:
char[] name The file to get the attributes of.

uint getLinkAttributes(in char[] name);
If the given file is a symbolic link, then this returns the attributes of the symbolic link itself rather than file that it points to. If the given file is not a symbolic link, then this function returns the same result as getAttributes.

On Windows, getLinkAttributes is identical to getAttributes. It exists on Windows so that you don't have to special-case code for Windows when dealing with symbolic links.

Parameters:
char[] name The file to get the symbolic link attributes of.

Throws:
FileException on error.

@property bool isDir(in char[] name);
Returns whether the given file is a directory.

Parameters:
char[] name The path to the file.

Throws:
FileException if the given file does not exist.

Examples:
assert(!"/etc/fonts/fonts.conf".isDir);
assert("/usr/share/include".isDir);

nothrow bool attrIsDir(uint attributes);
Returns whether the given file attributes are for a directory.

Parameters:
uint attributes The file attributes.

Examples:
assert(!attrIsDir(getAttributes("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf")));
assert(!attrIsDir(getLinkAttributes("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf")));

@property bool isFile(in char[] name);
Returns whether the given file (or directory) is a file.

On Windows, if a file is not a directory, then it's a file. So, either isFile or isDir will return true for any given file.

On Posix systems, if isFile is true, that indicates that the file is a regular file (e.g. not a block not device). So, on Posix systems, it's possible for both isFile and isDir to be false for a particular file (in which case, it's a special file). You can use getAttributes to get the attributes to figure out what type of special it is, or you can use dirEntry to get at its statBuf, which is the result from stat. In either case, see the man page for stat for more information.

Parameters:
char[] name The path to the file.

Throws:
FileException if the given file does not exist.

Examples:
assert("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf".isFile);
assert(!"/usr/share/include".isFile);

nothrow bool attrIsFile(uint attributes);
Returns whether the given file attributes are for a file.

On Windows, if a file is not a directory, it's a file. So, either attrIsFile or attrIsDir will return true for the attributes of any given file.

On Posix systems, if attrIsFile is true, that indicates that the file is a regular file (e.g. not a block not device). So, on Posix systems, it's possible for both attrIsFile and attrIsDir to be false for a particular file (in which case, it's a special file). If a file is a special file, you can use the attributes to check what type of special file it is (see the man page for stat for more information).

Parameters:
uint attributes The file attributes.

Examples:
assert(attrIsFile(getAttributes("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf")));
assert(attrIsFile(getLinkAttributes("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf")));

bool isSymlink(C)(const(C)[] name);
Returns whether the given file is a symbolic link.

On Windows, returns true when the file is either a symbolic link or a junction point.

Parameters:
name The path to the file.

Throws:
FileException if the given file does not exist.

nothrow bool attrIsSymlink(uint attributes);
Returns whether the given file attributes are for a symbolic link.

On Windows, return true when the file is either a symbolic link or a junction point.

Parameters:
uint attributes The file attributes.

Examples:
core.sys.posix.unistd.symlink("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf", "/tmp/alink");

assert(!getAttributes("/tmp/alink").isSymlink);
assert(getLinkAttributes("/tmp/alink").isSymlink);

void chdir(in char[] pathname);
Change directory to pathname.

Throws:
FileException on error.

void mkdir(in char[] pathname);
Make directory pathname.

Throws:
FileException on error.

void mkdirRecurse(in char[] pathname);
Make directory and all parent directories as needed.

void rmdir(in char[] pathname);
Remove directory pathname.

Throws:
FileException on error.

void symlink(C1, C2)(const(C1)[] original, const(C2)[] link);
This function is Posix-Only.

Creates a symlink.

Parameters:
original The file to link from.
link The symlink to create.

Note:
Relative paths are relative to the current working directory, not the files being linked to or from.

Throws:
FileException on error (which includes if the symlink already exists).

string readLink(C)(const(C)[] link);
This function is Posix-Only.

Returns the path to the file pointed to by a symlink. Note that the path could be either relative or absolute depending on the symlink. If the path is relative, it's relative to the symlink, not the current working directory.

Throws:
FileException on error.

string getcwd();
Get current directory.

Throws:
FileException on error.

struct DirEntry;
Info on a file, similar to what you'd get from stat on a Posix system.

A DirEntry is obtained by using the functions dirEntry (to get the DirEntry for a specific file) or dirEntries (to get a DirEntry for each file/directory in a particular directory).

const @property string name();
Returns the path to the file represented by this DirEntry.

Examples:
auto de1 = dirEntry("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf");
assert(de1.name == "/etc/fonts/fonts.conf");

auto de2 = dirEntry("/usr/share/include");
assert(de2.name == "/usr/share/include");

@property bool isDir();
Returns whether the file represented by this DirEntry is a directory.

Examples:
auto de1 = dirEntry("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf");
assert(!de1.isDir);

auto de2 = dirEntry("/usr/share/include");
assert(de2.isDir);

@property bool isFile();
Returns whether the file represented by this DirEntry is a file.

On Windows, if a file is not a directory, then it's a file. So, either isFile or isDir will return true.

On Posix systems, if isFile is true, that indicates that the file is a regular file (e.g. not a block not device). So, on Posix systems, it's possible for both isFile and isDir to be false for a particular file (in which case, it's a special file). You can use attributes or statBuf to get more information about a special file (see the stat man page for more details).

Examples:
auto de1 = dirEntry("/etc/fonts/fonts.conf");
assert(de1.isFile);

auto de2 = dirEntry("/usr/share/include");
assert(!de2.isFile);

@property bool isSymlink();
Returns whether the file represented by this DirEntry is a symbolic link.

On Windows, return true when the file is either a symbolic link or a junction point.

@property ulong size();
Returns the size of the the file represented by this DirEntry in bytes.

const @property SysTime timeCreated();
This function is Windows-Only.

Returns the creation time of the file represented by this DirEntry.

@property SysTime timeLastAccessed();
Returns the time that the file represented by this DirEntry was last accessed.

Note that many file systems do not update the access time for files (generally for performance reasons), so there's a good chance that timeLastAccessed will return the same value as timeLastModified.

@property SysTime timeLastModified();
Returns the time that the file represented by this DirEntry was last modified.

@property uint attributes();
Returns the attributes of the file represented by this DirEntry.

Note that the file attributes on Windows and Posix systems are completely different. On, Windows, they're what is returned by GetFileAttributes GetFileAttributes Whereas, an Posix systems, they're the st_mode value which is part of the stat struct gotten by calling stat.

On Posix systems, if the file represented by this DirEntry is a symbolic link, then attributes are the attributes of the file pointed to by the symbolic link.

@property uint linkAttributes();
On Posix systems, if the file represented by this DirEntry is a symbolic link, then linkAttributes are the attributes of the symbolic link itself. Otherwise, linkAttributes is identical to attributes.

On Windows, linkAttributes is identical to attributes. It exists on Windows so that you don't have to special-case code for Windows when dealing with symbolic links.

@property stat_t statBuf();
This function is Posix-Only.

The stat struct gotten from calling stat.

deprecated alias listDir(C)(in C[] pathname) listdir;
Deprecated. It will be removed in November 2012. Please use dirEntries instead.

For each file and directory DirEntry in pathname[] pass it to the callback delegate.

Parameters:
callback Delegate that processes each DirEntry in turn. Returns true to continue, false to stop.

Example:
This program lists all the files in its path argument and all subdirectories thereof. 
 import std.stdio;
 import std.file;

 void main(string[] args)
 {
    bool callback(DirEntry* de)
    {
      if(de.isDir)
        listdir(de.name, &callback);
      else
        writefln(de.name);

      return true;
    }

    listdir(args[1], &callback);
 }

void copy(in char[] from, in char[] to);
Copy file from to file to. File timestamps are preserved.

void setTimes(in char[] name, SysTime fileAccessTime, SysTime fileModificationTime);
Set access/modified times of file name.

Parameters:
SysTime fileAccessTime Time the file was last accessed.
SysTime fileModificationTime Time the file was last modified.

Throws:
FileException on error.

void rmdirRecurse(in char[] pathname);
Remove directory and all of its content and subdirectories, recursively.

Throws:
FileException if there is an error (including if the given file is not a directory).

void rmdirRecurse(ref DirEntry de);
Remove directory and all of its content and subdirectories, recursively.

Throws:
FileException if there is an error (including if the given file is not a directory).

enum SpanMode;
Dictates directory spanning policy for dirEntries (see below).

shallow
Only spans one directory.

depth
Spans the directory depth-first, i.e. the content of any subdirectory is spanned before that subdirectory itself. Useful e.g. when recursively deleting files.

breadth
Spans the directory breadth-first, i.e. the content of any subdirectory is spanned right after that subdirectory itself.

auto dirEntries(string path, SpanMode mode, bool followSymlink = true);
Returns an input range of DirEntry that lazily iterates a given directory, also provides two ways of foreach iteration. The iteration variable can be of type string if only the name is needed, or DirEntry if additional details are needed. The span mode dictates the how the directory is traversed. The name of the each directory entry iterated contains the absolute path.

Parameters:
string path The directory to iterate over.
SpanMode mode Whether the directory's sub-directories should be iterated over depth-first (depth), breadth-first (breadth), or not at all (shallow).
bool followSymlink Whether symbolic links which point to directories should be treated as directories and their contents iterated over.

Examples:
// Iterate a directory in depth
foreach (string name; dirEntries("destroy/me", SpanMode.depth))
{
 remove(name);
}
// Iterate a directory in breadth
foreach (string name; dirEntries(".", SpanMode.breadth))
{
 writeln(name);
}
// Iterate a directory and get detailed info about it
foreach (DirEntry e; dirEntries("dmd-testing", SpanMode.breadth))
{
 writeln(e.name, "\t", e.size);
}
// Iterate over all *.d files in current directory and all its subdirectories
auto dFiles = filter!`endsWith(a.name,".d")`(dirEntries(".",SpanMode.depth));
foreach(d; dFiles)
    writeln(d.name);
// Hook it up with std.parallelism to compile them all in parallel:
foreach(d; parallel(dFiles, 1)) //passes by 1 file to each thread
{
    string cmd = "dmd -c "  ~ d.name;
    writeln(cmd);
    std.process.system(cmd);
}
//

auto dirEntries(string path, string pattern, SpanMode mode, bool followSymlink = true);
Convenience wrapper for filtering file names with a glob pattern.

Parameters:
string path The directory to iterate over.
string pattern String with wildcards, such as "*.d". The supported wildcard strings are described under std.path.globMatch.
SpanMode mode Whether the directory's sub-directories should be iterated over depth-first (depth), breadth-first (breadth), or not at all (shallow).
bool followSymlink Whether symbolic links which point to directories should be treated as directories and their contents iterated over.

Examples:
// Iterate over all D source files in current directory and all its
// subdirectories
auto dFiles = dirEntries(".","*.{d,di}",SpanMode.depth);
foreach(d; dFiles)
    writeln(d.name);
//

DirEntry dirEntry(in char[] name);
Returns a DirEntry for the given file (or directory).

Parameters:
char[] name The file (or directory) to get a DirEntry for.

Throws:
FileException if the file does not exist.

Select!(Types.length == 1, Types[0][], Tuple!(Types)[]) slurp(Types...)(string filename, in char[] format);
Reads an entire file into an array.

Example:
// Load file; each line is an int followed by comma, whitespace and a
// double.
auto a = slurp!(int, double)("filename", "%s, %s");

string tempDir();
Returns the path to a directory for temporary files.

On Windows, this function returns the result of calling the Windows API function GetTempPath.

On POSIX platforms, it searches through the following list of directories and returns the first one which is found to exist:
  1. The directory given by the TMPDIR environment variable.
  2. The directory given by the TEMP environment variable.
  3. The directory given by the TMP environment variable.
  4. /tmp
  5. /var/tmp
  6. /usr/tmp

On all platforms, tempDir returns "." on failure, representing the current working directory.

The return value of the function is cached, so the procedures described above will only be performed the first time the function is called. All subsequent runs will return the same string, regardless of whether environment variables and directory structures have changed in the meantime.

The POSIX tempDir algorithm is inspired by Python's tempfile.tempdir.

string[] listDir(C)(in C[] pathname);
Deprecated. It will be removed in November 2012. Please use dirEntries instead.

Returns the contents of the given directory.

The names in the contents do not include the pathname.

Throws:
FileException on error.

Examples:
This program lists all the files and subdirectories in its path argument. 
import std.stdio;
import std.file;

void main(string[] args)
{
    auto dirs = std.file.listDir(args[1]);

    foreach(d; dirs)
        writefln(d);
}

string[] listDir(C, U)(in C[] pathname, U filter, bool followSymlink = true);
Deprecated. It will be removed in November 2012. Please use dirEntries instead.

Returns all the files in the directory and its sub-directories which match pattern or regular expression r.

Parameters:
pathname The path of the directory to search.
pattern String with wildcards, such as "*.d". The supported wildcard strings are described under fnmatch() in std.path.
r Regular expression, for more powerful pattern matching.
followSymlink Whether symbolic links which point to directories should be treated as directories and their contents iterated over. Ignored on Windows.

Examples:
This program lists all the files with a "d" extension in the path passed as the first argument. 
import std.stdio;
import std.file;

void main(string[] args)
{
  auto d_source_files = std.file.listDir(args[1], "*.d");

  foreach(d; d_source_files)
      writefln(d);
}

A regular expression version that searches for all files with "d" or "obj" extensions: 
import std.stdio;
import std.file;
import std.regexp;

void main(string[] args)
{
  auto d_source_files = std.file.listDir(args[1], RegExp(r"\.(d|obj)$"));

  foreach(d; d_source_files)
      writefln(d);
}

void listDir(C, U)(in C[] pathname, U callback);
Deprecated. It will be removed in November 2012. Please use dirEntries instead.

For each file and directory name in pathname[], pass it to the callback delegate.

Parameters:
callback Delegate that processes each filename in turn. Returns true to continue, false to stop.

Example:
This program lists all the files in its path argument, including the path. 
 import std.stdio;
 import std.path;
 import std.file;

 void main(string[] args)
 {
    auto pathname = args[1];
    string[] result;

    bool listing(string filename)
    {
      result ~= buildPath(pathname, filename);
      return true; // continue
    }

    listdir(pathname, &listing);

    foreach (name; result)
      writefln("%s", name);
 }