phpMan > perldoc > File::Spec

NAME
    File::Spec - portably perform operations on file names

SYNOPSIS
            use File::Spec;

            $x=File::Spec->catfile('a', 'b', 'c');

    which returns 'a/b/c' under Unix. Or:

            use File::Spec::Functions;

            $x = catfile('a', 'b', 'c');

DESCRIPTION
    This module is designed to support operations commonly performed on file specifications (usually
    called "file names", but not to be confused with the contents of a file, or Perl's file
    handles), such as concatenating several directory and file names into a single path, or
    determining whether a path is rooted. It is based on code directly taken from MakeMaker 5.17,
    code written by Andreas K?nig, Andy Dougherty, Charles Bailey, Ilya Zakharevich, Paul Schinder,
    and others.

    Since these functions are different for most operating systems, each set of OS specific routines
    is available in a separate module, including:

            File::Spec::Unix
            File::Spec::Mac
            File::Spec::OS2
            File::Spec::Win32
            File::Spec::VMS

    The module appropriate for the current OS is automatically loaded by File::Spec. Since some
    modules (like VMS) make use of facilities available only under that OS, it may not be possible
    to load all modules under all operating systems.

    Since File::Spec is object oriented, subroutines should not be called directly, as in:

            File::Spec::catfile('a','b');

    but rather as class methods:

            File::Spec->catfile('a','b');

    For simple uses, File::Spec::Functions provides convenient functional forms of these methods.

METHODS
    canonpath
      No physical check on the filesystem, but a logical cleanup of a path.

          $cpath = File::Spec->canonpath( $path ) ;

      Note that this does *not* collapse x/../y sections into y. This is by design. If /foo on your
      system is a symlink to /bar/baz, then /foo/../quux is actually /bar/quux, not /quux as a naive
      ../-removal would give you. If you want to do this kind of processing, you probably want
      "Cwd"'s "realpath()" function to actually traverse the filesystem cleaning up paths like this.

    catdir
      Concatenate two or more directory names to form a complete path ending with a directory. But
      remove the trailing slash from the resulting string, because it doesn't look good, isn't
      necessary and confuses OS/2. Of course, if this is the root directory, don't cut off the
      trailing slash :-)

          $path = File::Spec->catdir( @directories );

    catfile
      Concatenate one or more directory names and a filename to form a complete path ending with a
      filename

          $path = File::Spec->catfile( @directories, $filename );

    curdir
      Returns a string representation of the current directory.

          $curdir = File::Spec->curdir();

    devnull
      Returns a string representation of the null device.

          $devnull = File::Spec->devnull();

    rootdir
      Returns a string representation of the root directory.

          $rootdir = File::Spec->rootdir();

    tmpdir
      Returns a string representation of the first writable directory from a list of possible
      temporary directories. Returns the current directory if no writable temporary directories are
      found. The list of directories checked depends on the platform; e.g. File::Spec::Unix checks
      $ENV{TMPDIR} (unless taint is on) and /tmp.

          $tmpdir = File::Spec->tmpdir();

    updir
      Returns a string representation of the parent directory.

          $updir = File::Spec->updir();

    no_upwards
      Given a list of files in a directory (such as from "readdir()"), strip out '.' and '..'.

      SECURITY NOTE: This does NOT filter paths containing '..', like '../../../../etc/passwd', only
      literal matches to '.' and '..'.

          @paths = File::Spec->no_upwards( readdir $dirhandle );

    case_tolerant
      Returns a true or false value indicating, respectively, that alphabetic case is not or is
      significant when comparing file specifications. Cygwin and Win32 accept an optional drive
      argument.

          $is_case_tolerant = File::Spec->case_tolerant();

    file_name_is_absolute
      Takes as its argument a path, and returns true if it is an absolute path.

          $is_absolute = File::Spec->file_name_is_absolute( $path );

      This does not consult the local filesystem on Unix, Win32, OS/2, or Mac OS (Classic). It does
      consult the working environment for VMS (see "file_name_is_absolute" in File::Spec::VMS).

    path
      Takes no argument. Returns the environment variable "PATH" (or the local platform's
      equivalent) as a list.

          @PATH = File::Spec->path();

    join
      join is the same as catfile.

    splitpath
      Splits a path in to volume, directory, and filename portions. On systems with no concept of
      volume, returns '' for volume.

          ($volume,$directories,$file) =
                             File::Spec->splitpath( $path );
          ($volume,$directories,$file) =
                             File::Spec->splitpath( $path, $no_file );

      For systems with no syntax differentiating filenames from directories, assumes that the last
      file is a path unless $no_file is true or a trailing separator or /. or /.. is present. On
      Unix, this means that $no_file true makes this return ( '', $path, '' ).

      The directory portion may or may not be returned with a trailing '/'.

      The results can be passed to "catpath()" to get back a path equivalent to (usually identical
      to) the original path.

    splitdir
      The opposite of "catdir".

          @dirs = File::Spec->splitdir( $directories );

      $directories must be only the directory portion of the path on systems that have the concept
      of a volume or that have path syntax that differentiates files from directories.

      Unlike just splitting the directories on the separator, empty directory names ('') can be
      returned, because these are significant on some OSes.

    catpath()
      Takes volume, directory and file portions and returns an entire path. Under Unix, $volume is
      ignored, and directory and file are concatenated. A '/' is inserted if need be. On other OSes,
      $volume is significant.

          $full_path = File::Spec->catpath( $volume, $directory, $file );

    abs2rel
      Takes a destination path and an optional base path returns a relative path from the base path
      to the destination path:

          $rel_path = File::Spec->abs2rel( $path ) ;
          $rel_path = File::Spec->abs2rel( $path, $base ) ;

      If $base is not present or '', then Cwd::cwd() is used. If $base is relative, then it is
      converted to absolute form using "rel2abs()". This means that it is taken to be relative to
      Cwd::cwd().

      On systems with the concept of volume, if $path and $base appear to be on two different
      volumes, we will not attempt to resolve the two paths, and we will instead simply return
      $path. Note that previous versions of this module ignored the volume of $base, which resulted
      in garbage results part of the time.

      On systems that have a grammar that indicates filenames, this ignores the $base filename as
      well. Otherwise all path components are assumed to be directories.

      If $path is relative, it is converted to absolute form using "rel2abs()". This means that it
      is taken to be relative to Cwd::cwd().

      No checks against the filesystem are made. On VMS, there is interaction with the working
      environment, as logicals and macros are expanded.

      Based on code written by Shigio Yamaguchi.

    rel2abs()
      Converts a relative path to an absolute path.

          $abs_path = File::Spec->rel2abs( $path ) ;
          $abs_path = File::Spec->rel2abs( $path, $base ) ;

      If $base is not present or '', then Cwd::cwd() is used. If $base is relative, then it is
      converted to absolute form using "rel2abs()". This means that it is taken to be relative to
      Cwd::cwd().

      On systems with the concept of volume, if $path and $base appear to be on two different
      volumes, we will not attempt to resolve the two paths, and we will instead simply return
      $path. Note that previous versions of this module ignored the volume of $base, which resulted
      in garbage results part of the time.

      On systems that have a grammar that indicates filenames, this ignores the $base filename as
      well. Otherwise all path components are assumed to be directories.

      If $path is absolute, it is cleaned up and returned using "canonpath".

      No checks against the filesystem are made. On VMS, there is interaction with the working
      environment, as logicals and macros are expanded.

      Based on code written by Shigio Yamaguchi.

    For further information, please see File::Spec::Unix, File::Spec::Mac, File::Spec::OS2,
    File::Spec::Win32, or File::Spec::VMS.

SEE ALSO
    File::Spec::Unix, File::Spec::Mac, File::Spec::OS2, File::Spec::Win32, File::Spec::VMS,
    File::Spec::Functions, ExtUtils::MakeMaker

AUTHOR
    Currently maintained by Ken Williams "<KWILLIAMS AT cpan.org>".

    The vast majority of the code was written by Kenneth Albanowski "<kjahds AT kjahds.com>", Andy
    Dougherty "<doughera AT lafayette.edu>", Andreas K?nig "<A.Koenig AT franz.DE>", Tim
    Bunce "<Tim.Bunce AT ig.uk>". VMS support by Charles Bailey "<bailey AT newman.edu>". OS/2
    support by Ilya Zakharevich "<ilya AT math.edu>". Mac support by Paul Schinder
    "<schinder AT pobox.com>", and Thomas Wegner "<wegner_thomas AT yahoo.com>". abs2rel() and rel2abs()
    written by Shigio Yamaguchi "<shigio AT tamacom.com>", modified by Barrie Slaymaker
    "<barries AT slaysys.com>". splitpath(), splitdir(), catpath() and catdir() by Barrie Slaymaker.

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2004-2013 by the Perl 5 Porters. All rights reserved.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
    Perl itself.