In rare circumstances, this function can fail on Unix. It may happen if read permission does not exist for the parent directories of the current directory.

Typical error reasons are:

eacces: Missing read permission for one of the parents of the current directory.

get_cwd(Drive) -> {ok, Dir} | {error, Reason}

Types

Drive = string() -- see below

Dir = string()

Reason = posix()

Drive should be of the form "Letter:", for example "c:". Returns {ok, Dir} or {error, Reason}, where Dir is the current working directory of the drive specified.

This function returns {error, enotsup} on platforms which have no concept of current drive (Unix, for example).

Typical error reasons are:

enotsup: The operating system have no concept of drives.

eacces: The drive does not exist.

einval: The format of Drive is invalid.

list_dir(Dir) -> {ok, Filenames} | {error, Reason}

Types

Dir = name()

Filenames = [Filename]

 Filename = string()

Reason = posix()

Lists all the files in a directory. Returns {ok, Filenames} if successful. Otherwise, it returns {error, Reason}. Filenames is a list of the names of all the files in the directory. The names are not sorted.

Typical error reasons are:

eacces: Missing search or write permissions for Dir or one of its parent directories.

enoent: The directory does not exist.

make_dir(Dir) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

Dir = name()

Reason = posix()

Tries to create the directory Dir. Missing parent directories are not created. Returns ok if successful.

Typical error reasons are:

eacces: Missing search or write permissions for the parent directories of Dir.

eexist: There is already a file or directory named Dir.

enoent: A component of Dir does not exist.

enospc: There is a no space left on the device.

enotdir: A component of Dir is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

make_link(Existing, New) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

Existing = New = name()

Reason = posix()

Makes a hard link from Existing to New, on platforms that support links (Unix). This function returns ok if the link was successfully created, or {error, Reason}. On platforms that do not support links, {error, enotsup} is returned.

Typical error reasons:

eacces: Missing read or write permissions for the parent directories of Existing or New.

eexist: New already exists.

enotsup: Hard links are not supported on this platform.

make_symlink(Name1, Name2) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

Name1 = Name2 = name()

Reason = posix()

This function creates a symbolic link Name2 to the file or directory Name1, on platforms that support symbolic links (most Unix systems). Name1 need not exist. This function returns ok if the link was successfully created, or {error, Reason}. On platforms that do not support symbolic links, {error, enotsup} is returned.

Typical error reasons:

eacces: Missing read or write permissions for the parent directories of Name1 or Name2.

eexist: Name2 already exists.

enotsup: Symbolic links are not supported on this platform.

open(Filename, Modes) -> {ok, IoDevice} | {error, Reason}

Types

Filename = name()

Modes = [Mode]

 Mode = read | write | append | raw | binary | {delayed_write, Size, Delay} | delayed_write | {read_ahead, Size} | read_ahead | compressed

  Size = Delay = int()

IoDevice = io_device()

Reason = posix()

Opens the file Filename in the mode determined by Modes, which may contain one or more of the following items:

read: The file, which must exist, is opened for reading.

write: The file is opened for writing. It is created if it does not exist. If combined with read, write operations will take place at the end of the file. Otherwise, the file is truncated.

append: The file will be opened for writing, and it will be created it does not exist. Every write operation to a file openeded with append will take place at the end of the file.

raw: The raw option allows faster access to a file, because no Erlang process is needed to handle the file. However, a file opened in this way has the following limitations:

*

The functions in the io module cannot be used, because they can only talk to an Erlang process. Instead, use the read/2 and write/2 functions.

*

Only the Erlang process which opened the file can use it.

*

A remote Erlang file server cannot be used; the computer on which the Erlang node is running must have access to the file system (directly or through NFS).

binary: This option can only be used if the raw option is specified as well. When specified, read operations on the file using the read/2 function will return binaries rather than lists.

{delayed_write, Size, Delay}: If this option is used, the data in subsequent write/2 calls is buffered until there are at least Size bytes buffered, or until the oldest buffered data is Delay milliseconds old. Then all buffered data is written in one operating system call. The buffered data is also flushed before some other file operation than write/2 is executed.

The purpose of this option is to increase performance by reducing the number of operating system calls, so the write/2 calls should be for sizes significantly less than Size, and not interspersed by to many other file operations, for this to happen.

When this option is used, the result of write/2 calls may prematurely be reported as successful, and if a write error should actually occur the error is reported as the result of the next file operation, which is not executed.

For example, when delayed_write is used, after a number of write/2 calls, close/1 might return {error, enospc} because there was not enough space on the disc for previously written data, and close/1 should probably be called again since the file is still open.

delayed_write: The same as {delayed_write, Size, Delay} with reasonable default values for Size and Delay. (Roughly some 64 KBytes, 2 seconds)

{read_ahead, Size}: This option activates read data buffering. If read/2 calls are for significantly less than Size bytes, read operations towards the operating system are still performed for blocks of Size bytes. The extra data is buffered and returned in subsequent read/2 calls, giving a performance gain since the number of operating system calls is reduced.

If read/2 calls are for sizes not significantly less than, or even greater than Size bytes, no performance gain can be expected.

read_ahead: The same as {read_ahead, Size} with a reasonable default value for Size. (Roughly some 64 KBytes)

compressed: Makes it possible to read and write gzip compressed files. Note that the file size obtained with read_file_info/1 will most probably not match the number of bytes that can be read from a compressed file.

Returns:

{ok, IoDevice}: The file has been opened in the requested mode. IoDevice is a reference to the file.

{error, Reason}: The file could not be opened.

IoDevice is really the pid of the process which handles the file. This process is linked to the process which originally opened the file. If any process to which the IoDevice is linked terminates, the file will be closed and the process itself will be terminated. An IoDevice returned from this call can be used as an argument to the IO functions (see io(3)).

In previous versions of file, modes were given as one of the atoms read, write, or read_write instead of a list. This is still allowed for reasons of backwards compatibility, but should not be used for new code. Also note that read_write is not allowed in a mode list.

Typical error reasons:

enoent: The file does not exist.

eacces: Missing permission for reading the file or searching one of the parent directories.

eisdir: The named file is not a regular file. It may be a directory, a fifo, or a device.

enotdir: A component of the file name is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

enospc: There is a no space left on the device (if write access was specified).

path_consult(Path, Filename) -> {ok, Terms, FullName} | {error, Reason}

Types

Path = [Dir]

 Dir = name()

Filename = name()

Terms = [term()]

FullName = string()

Reason = posix() | {Line, Mod, Term}

 Line, Mod, Term -- see below

Searches the path Path (a list of directory names) until the file Filename is found. If Filename is an absolute filename, Path is ignored. Then reads Erlang terms, separated by '.', from the file. Returns one of the following:

{ok, Terms, FullName}: The file was successfully read. FullName is the full name of the file.

{error, enoent}: The file could not be found in any of the directories in Path.

{error, Posix}: An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. See open/2 for a list of typical error codes.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}: An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang terms in the file. Use format_error/1 to convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error.

path_eval(Path, Filename) -> {ok, FullName} | {error, Reason}

Types

Path = [Dir]

 Dir = name()

Filename = name()

FullName = string()

Reason = posix() | {Line, Mod, Term}

 Line, Mod, Term -- see below

Searches the path Path (a list of directory names) until the file Filename is found. If Filename is an absolute file name, Path is ignored. Then reads and evaluates Erlang expressions, separated by '.' (or ',', a sequence of expressions is also an expression), from the file. The actual result of evaluation is not returned; any expression sequence in the file must be there for its side effect. Returns one of the following:

{ok, FullName}: The file was read and evaluated. FullName is the full name of the file.

{error, enoent}: The file could not be found in any of the directories in Path.

{error, Posix}: An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. See open/2 for a list of typical error codes.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}: An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang expressions in the file. Use format_error/1 to convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error.

path_open(Path, Filename, Modes) -> {ok, IoDevice, FullName} | {error, Reason}

Types

Path = [Dir]

 Dir = name()

Filename = name()

Modes = [Mode] -- see open/2

IoDevice = io_device()

FullName = string()

Reason = posix()

Searches the path Path (a list of directory names) until the file Filename is found. If Filename is an absolute file name, Path is ignored. Then opens the file in the mode determined by Modes. Returns one of the following:

{ok, IoDevice, FullName}: The file has been opened in the requested mode. IoDevice is a reference to the file and FullName is the full name of the file.

{error, enoent}: The file could not be found in any of the directories in Path.

{error, Posix}: The file could not be opened.

path_script(Path, Filename) -> {ok, Value, FullName} | {error, Reason}

Types

Path = [Dir]

 Dir = name()

Filename = name()

Value = term()

FullName = string()

Reason = posix() | {Line, Mod, Term}

 Line, Mod, Term -- see below

Searches the path Path (a list of directory names) until the file Filename is found. If Filename is an absolute file name, Path is ignored. Then reads and evalutates Erlang expressions, separated by '.' (or ',', a sequence of expressions is also an expression), from the file. Returns one of the following:

{ok, Value, FullName}: The file was read and evaluated. FullName is the full name of the file and Value the value of the last expression.

{error, enoent}: The file could not be found in any of the directories in Path.

{error, Posix}: An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. See open/2 for a list of typical error codes.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}: An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang expressions in the file. Use format_error/1 to convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error.

path_script(Path, Filename, Bindings) -> {ok, Value, FullName} | {error, Reason}

Types

Path = [Dir]

 Dir = name()

Filename = name()

Bindings -- see erl_eval(3)

Value = term()

FullName = string()

Reason = posix() | {Line, Mod, Term}

 Line, Mod, Term -- see path_script/2

The same as path_script/2 but the variable bindings Bindings are used in the evaluation. See erl_eval(3) about variable bindings.

pid2name(Pid) -> string() | undefined

Types

Pid = pid()

If Pid is an IO device, that is, a pid returned from open/2, this function returns the filename, or rather:

{ok, Filename}: If this node's file server is not a slave, the file was opened by this node's file server, (this implies that Pid must be a local pid) and the file is not closed. Filename is the filename in flat string format.

undefined: In all other cases.

This function is intended for debugging only.

position(IoDevice, Location) -> {ok, NewPosition} | {error, Reason}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

Location = Offset | {bof, Offset} | {cur, Offset} | {eof, Offset} | bof | cur | eof

 Offset = int()

NewPosition = int()

Reason = posix()

Sets the position of the file referenced by IoDevice to Location. Returns {ok, NewPosition} (as absolute offset) if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. Location is one of the following:

Offset: The same as {bof, Offset}.

{bof, Offset}: Absolute offset.

{cur, Offset}: Offset from the current position.

{eof, Offset}: Offset from the end of file.

bof | cur | eof: The same as above with Offset 0.

Typical error reasons are:

einval: Either Location was illegal, or it evaluated to a negative offset in the file. Note that if the resulting position is a negative value, the result is an error, and after the call the file position is undefined.

pread(IoDevice, LocNums) -> {ok, DataL} | {error, Reason}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

LocNums = [{Location, Number}]

 Location -- see position/2

 Number = int()

DataL = [Data]

 Data = [char()] | binary() | eof

Reason = posix()

Performs a sequence of pread/3 in one operation, which is more efficient than calling them one at a time. Returns {ok, [Data, ...]} or {error, Reason}, where each Data, the result of the corresponding pread, is either a list or a binary depending on the mode of the file, or eof if the requested position was beyond end of file.

pread(IoDevice, Location, Number) -> {ok, Data} | {error, Reason}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

Location -- see position/2

Number = int()

Data = [char()] | binary() | eof

Reason = posix()

Combines position/2 and read/2 in one operation, which is more efficient than calling them one at a time. If IoDevice has been opened in raw mode, some restrictions apply: Location is only allowed to be an integer; and the current position of the file is undefined after the operation.

pwrite(IoDevice, LocBytes) -> ok | {error, {N, Reason}}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

LocBytes = [{Location, Bytes}]

 Location -- see position/2

 Bytes = iodata()

N = int()

Reason = posix()

Performs a sequence of pwrite/3 in one operation, which is more efficient than calling them one at a time. Returns ok or {error, {N, Reason}}, where N is the number of successful writes that was done before the failure.

pwrite(IoDevice, Location, Bytes) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

Location -- see position/2

Bytes = iodata()

Reason = posix()

Combines position/2 and write/2 in one operation, which is more efficient than calling them one at a time. If IoDevice has been opened in raw mode, some restrictions apply: Location is only allowed to be an integer; and the current position of the file is undefined after the operation.

read(IoDevice, Number) -> {ok, Data} | eof | {error, Reason}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

Number = int()

Data = [char()] | binary()

Reason = posix()

Reads Number bytes from the file referenced by IoDevice. This function is the only way to read from a file opened in raw mode (although it works for normally opened files, too). Returns:

{ok, Data}: If the file was opened in binary mode, the read bytes are returned in a binary, otherwise in a list. The list or binary will be shorter than the number of bytes requested if end of file was reached.

eof: Returned if Number>0 and end of file was reached before anything at all could be read.

{error, Reason}: An error occurred.

Typical error reasons:

ebadf: The file is not opened for reading.

read_file(Filename) -> {ok, Binary} | {error, Reason}

Types

Filename = name()

Binary = binary()

Reason = posix()

Returns {ok, Binary}, where Binary is a binary data object that contains the contents of Filename, or {error, Reason} if an error occurs.

Typical error reasons:

enoent: The file does not exist.

eacces: Missing permission for reading the file, or for searching one of the parent directories.

eisdir: The named file is a directory.

enotdir: A component of the file name is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

enomem: There is not enough memory for the contents of the file.

read_file_info(Filename) -> {ok, FileInfo} | {error, Reason}

Types

Filename = name()

FileInfo = #file_info{}

Reason = posix()

Retrieves information about a file. Returns {ok, FileInfo} if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. FileInfo is a record file_info, defined in the Kernel include file file.hrl. Include the following directive in the module from which the function is called:

-include_lib("kernel/include/file.hrl").

The record file_info contains the following fields.

size = int(): Size of file in bytes.

type = device | directory | regular | other: The type of the file.

access = read | write | read_write | none: The current system access to the file.

atime = time(): The last (local) time the file was read.

mtime = time(): The last (local) time the file was written.

ctime = time(): The interpretation of this time field depends on the operating system. On Unix, it is the last time the file or the inode was changed. In Windows, it is the create time.

mode = int(): The file permissions as the sum of the following bit values:

8#00400: read permission: owner

8#00200: write permission: owner

8#00100: execute permission: owner

8#00040: read permission: group

8#00020: write permission: group

8#00010: execute permission: group

8#00004: read permission: other

8#00002: write permission: other

8#00001: execute permission: other

16#800: set user id on execution

16#400: set group id on execution

On Unix platforms, other bits than those listed above may be set.

links = int(): Number of links to the file (this will always be 1 for file systems which have no concept of links).

major_device = int(): Identifies the file system where the file is located. In Windows, the number indicates a drive as follows: 0 means A:, 1 means B:, and so on.

minor_device = int(): Only valid for character devices on Unix. In all other cases, this field is zero.

inode = int(): Gives the inode number. On non-Unix file systems, this field will be zero.

uid = int(): Indicates the owner of the file. Will be zero for non-Unix file systems.

gid = int(): Gives the group that the owner of the file belongs to. Will be zero for non-Unix file systems.

Typical error reasons:

eacces: Missing search permission for one of the parent directories of the file.

enoent: The file does not exist.

enotdir: A component of the file name is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

read_link(N) -> {ok, Filename} | {error, Reason}

Types

Name = name()

Filename = string()

Reason = posix()

This function returns {ok, Filename} if Name refers to a symbolic link or {error, Reason} otherwise. On platforms that do not support symbolic links, the return value will be {error, enotsup}.

Typical error reasons:

einval: Linkname does not refer to a symbolic link.

enoent: The file does not exist.

enotsup: Symbolic links are not supported on this platform.

read_link_info(N) -> {ok, FileInfo} | {error, Reason}

Types

Name = name()

FileInfo = #file_info{}, see read_file_info/1

Reason = posix()

This function works like read_file_info/1, except that if Name is a symbolic link, information about the link will be returned in the file_info record and the type field of the record will be set to symlink.

If Name is not a symbolic link, this function returns exactly the same result as read_file_info/1. On platforms that do not support symbolic links, this function is always equvivalent to read_file_info/1.

rename(Source, Destination) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

Source = Destination = name()

Reason = posix()

Tries to rename the file Source to Destination. It can be used to move files (and directories) between directories, but it is not sufficient to specify the destination only. The destination file name must also be specified. For example, if bar is a normal file and foo and baz are directories, rename("foo/bar", "baz") returns an error, but rename("foo/bar", "baz/bar") succeeds. Returns ok if it is successful.

Renaming of open files is not allowed on most platforms (see eacces below).

Typical error reasons:

eacces: Missing read or write permissions for the parent directories of Source or Destination. On some platforms, this error is given if either Source or Destination is open.

eexist: Destination is not an empty directory. On some platforms, also given when Source and Destination are not of the same type.

einval: Source is a root directory, or Destination is a sub-directory of Source.

eisdir: Destination is a directory, but Source is not.

enoent: Source does not exist.

enotdir: Source is a directory, but Destination is not.

exdev: Source and Destination are on different file systems.

script(Filename) -> {ok, Value} | {error, Reason}

Types

Filename = name()

Value = term()

Reason = posix() | {Line, Mod, Term}

 Line, Mod, Term -- see below

Reads and evaluates Erlang expressions, separated by '.' (or ',', a sequence of expressions is also an expression), from the file. Returns one of the following:

{ok, Value}: The file was read and evaluated. Value is the value of the last expression.

{error, Posix}: An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. See open/2 for a list of typical error codes.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}: An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang expressions in the file. Use format_error/1 to convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error.

script(Filename, Bindings) -> {ok, Value} | {error, Reason}

Types

Filename = name()

Bindings -- see erl_eval(3)

Value = term()

Reason = posix() | {Line, Mod, Term}

 Line, Mod, Term -- see below

The same as script/1 but the variable bindings Bindings are used in the evaluation. See erl_eval(3) about variable bindings.

set_cwd(Dir) -> ok

Types

Dir = name()

Sets the current working directory of the file server to Dir. Returns ok if successful.

Typical error reasons are:

enoent: The directory does not exist.

enotdir: A component of Dir is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned.

eacces: Missing permission for the directory or one of its parents.

sync(IoDevice) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

Reason = posix()

Makes sure that any buffers kept by the operating system (not by the Erlang runtime system) are written to disk. On some platforms, this function might have no effect.

Typical error reasons are:

enospc: Not enough space left to write the file.

truncate(IoDevice) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

Reason = posix()

Truncates the file referenced by IoDevice at the current position. Returns ok if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}.

write(IoDevice, Bytes) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

IoDevice = io_device()

Bytes = iodata()

Reason = posix()

Writes Bytes to the file referenced by IoDevice. This function is the only way to write to a file opened in raw mode (although it works for normally opened files, too). Returns ok if successful, and {error, Reason} otherwise.

Typical error reasons are:

ebadf: The file is not opened for writing.

enospc: There is a no space left on the device.

write_file(Filename, Binary) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

Filename = name()

Binary = binary()

Reason = posix()

Writes the contents of the binary data object Binary to the file Filename. The file is created if it does not exist. If it exists, the previous contents are overwritten. Returns ok, or {error, Reason}.

Typical error reasons are:

enoent: A component of the file name does not exist.

enotdir: A component of the file name is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

enospc: There is a no space left on the device.

eacces: Missing permission for writing the file or searching one of the parent directories.

eisdir: The named file is a directory.

write_file(Filename, Binary, Modes) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

Filename = name()

Binary = binary()

Modes = [Mode] -- see open/2

Reason = posix()

Same as write_file/2, but takes a third argument Modes, a list of possible modes, see open/2. The mode flags binary and write are implicit, so they should not be used.

write_file_info(Filename, FileInfo) -> ok | {error, Reason}

Types

Filename = name()

FileInfo = #file_info{} -- see also read_file_info/1

Reason = posix()

Change file information. Returns ok if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. FileInfo is a record file_info, defined in the Kernel include file file.hrl. Include the following directive in the module from which the function is called:

-include_lib("kernel/include/file.hrl").

The following fields are used from the record, if they are given.

atime = time(): The last (local) time the file was read.

mtime = time(): The last (local) time the file was written.

ctime = time(): On Unix, any value give for this field will be ignored (the "ctime" for the file will be set to the current time). On Windows, this field is the new creation time to set for the file.

mode = int(): The file permissions as the sum of the following bit values:

8#00400: read permission: owner

8#00200: write permission: owner

8#00100: execute permission: owner

8#00040: read permission: group

8#00020: write permission: group

8#00010: execute permission: group

8#00004: read permission: other

8#00002: write permission: other

8#00001: execute permission: other

16#800: set user id on execution

16#400: set group id on execution

On Unix platforms, other bits than those listed above may be set.

uid = int(): Indicates the owner of the file. Ignored for non-Unix file systems.

gid = int(): Gives the group that the owner of the file belongs to. Ignored non-Unix file systems.

Typical error reasons:

eacces: Missing search permission for one of the parent directories of the file.

enoent: The file does not exist.

enotdir: A component of the file name is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

Trust only your own benchmarks. If the list length in create_file/2 above is increased, it will run slightly faster, but consume more memory and cause more memory fragmentation. How much this affects your application is something that this simple benchmark can not predict.

If the size of each binary is increased to 64 bytes, it will also run slightly faster, but the code will be twice as clumsy. In the current implementation are binaries larger than 64 bytes stored in memory common to all processes and not copied when sent between processes, while these smaller binaries are stored on the process heap and copied when sent like any other term.

So, with a binary size of 68 bytes create_file/2 runs 30 percent slower then with 64 bytes, and will cause much more memory fragmentation. Note that if the binaries were to be sent between processes (for example a non-raw file) the results would probably be completely different.

A raw file is really a port. When writing data to a port, it is efficient to write a list of binaries. There is no need to flatten a deep list before writing. On Unix hosts, scatter output, which writes a set of buffers in one operation, is used when possible. In this way file:write(FD, [Bin1, Bin2 | Bin3]) will write the contents of the binaries without copying the data at all except for perhaps deep down in the operating system kernel.

For raw files, pwrite/2 and pread/2 are efficiently implemented. The file driver is called only once for the whole operation, and the list iteration is done in the file driver.

The options delayed_write and read_ahead to file:open/2 makes the file driver cache data to reduce the number of operating system calls. The function create_file/2 in the example above takes 60 seconds seconds without the delayed_write option, which is 2.6 times slower.

And, as a really bad example, create_file_slow/2 above without the raw, binary and delayed_write options, that is it calls file:open(Name, [write]), needs 1 min 20 seconds for the job, which is 3.5 times slower than the first example, and 150 times slower than the optimized create_file/2.