file::path(3pm) [redhat man page]

File::Path(3pm) 					 Perl Programmers Reference Guide					   File::Path(3pm)

NAME

       File::Path - create or remove directory trees

SYNOPSIS

	   use File::Path;

	   mkpath(['/foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 0711);
	   rmtree(['foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 1);

DESCRIPTION

       The "mkpath" function provides a convenient way to create directories, even if your "mkdir" kernel call won't create more than one level of
       directory at a time.  "mkpath" takes three arguments:

       o   the name of the path to create, or a reference to a list of paths to create,

       o   a boolean value, which if TRUE will cause "mkpath" to print the name of each directory as it is created (defaults to FALSE), and

       o   the numeric mode to use when creating the directories (defaults to 0777)

       It returns a list of all directories (including intermediates, determined using the Unix '/' separator) created.

       If a system error prevents a directory from being created, then the "mkpath" function throws a fatal error with "Carp::croak". This error
       can be trapped with an "eval" block:

	 eval { mkpath($dir) };
	 if ($@) {
	   print "Couldn't create $dir: $@";
	 }

       Similarly, the "rmtree" function provides a convenient way to delete a subtree from the directory structure, much like the Unix command "rm
       -r".  "rmtree" takes three arguments:

       o   the root of the subtree to delete, or a reference to a list of roots.  All of the files and directories below each root, as well as the
	   roots themselves, will be deleted.

       o   a boolean value, which if TRUE will cause "rmtree" to print a message each time it examines a file, giving the name of the file, and
	   indicating whether it's using "rmdir" or "unlink" to remove it, or that it's skipping it.  (defaults to FALSE)

       o   a boolean value, which if TRUE will cause "rmtree" to skip any files to which you do not have delete access (if running under VMS) or
	   write access (if running under another OS).	This will change in the future when a criterion for 'delete permission' under OSs other
	   than VMS is settled.  (defaults to FALSE)

       It returns the number of files successfully deleted.  Symlinks are simply deleted and not followed.

       NOTE: If the third parameter is not TRUE, "rmtree" is unsecure in the face of failure or interruption.  Files and directories which were
       not deleted may be left with permissions reset to allow world read and write access.  Note also that the occurrence of errors in rmtree can
       be determined only by trapping diagnostic messages using $SIG{__WARN__}; it is not apparent from the return value.  Therefore, you must be
       extremely careful about using "rmtree($foo,$bar,0" in situations where security is an issue.

AUTHORS

       Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk> and Charles Bailey <bailey@newman.upenn.edu>

perl v5.8.0							    2002-06-01							   File::Path(3pm)

Path::Class(3pm)					User Contributed Perl Documentation					  Path::Class(3pm)

NAME

       Path::Class - Cross-platform path specification manipulation

VERSION

       version 0.26

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, 'fooar' on Windows, etc.
	 print "dir: $dir
";

	 # Stringifies to 'bob/file.txt' on Unix, 'bobfile.txt' on Windows
	 print "file: $file
";

	 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');   # foofile.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:WindowsFoo.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   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

       Path::Class::Dir, Path::Class::File, File::Spec

perl v5.14.2							    2012-06-15							  Path::Class(3pm)