Path::Class::Dir - Objects representing directories

  use Path::Class qw(dir);  # Export a short constructor

  my $dir = dir('foo', 'bar');       # Path::Class::Dir object
  my $dir = Path::Class::Dir->new('foo', 'bar');  # Same thing

  # Stringifies to 'foo/bar' on Unix, 'foo\bar' on Windows, etc.
  print "dir: $dir\n";

  if ($dir->is_absolute) { ... }

  my $v = $dir->volume; # Could be 'C:' on Windows, empty string
                        # on Unix, 'Macintosh HD:' on Mac OS

  $dir->cleanup; # Perform logical cleanup of pathname

  my $file = $dir->file('file.txt'); # A file in this directory
  my $subdir = $dir->subdir('george'); # A subdirectory
  my $parent = $dir->parent; # The parent directory, 'foo'

  my $abs = $dir->absolute; # Transform to absolute path
  my $rel = $abs->relative; # Transform to relative path
  my $rel = $abs->relative('/foo'); # Relative to /foo

  print $dir->as_foreign('MacOS'); # :foo:bar:
  print $dir->as_foreign('Win32'); #  foo\bar

  # Iterate with IO::Dir methods:
  my $handle = $dir->open;
  while (my $file = $handle->read) {
    $file = $dir->file($file);  # Turn into Path::Class::File object
    ...
  }

  # Iterate with Path::Class methods:
  while (my $file = $dir->next) {
    # $file is a Path::Class::File or Path::Class::Dir object
    ...
  }

The CWPath::Class::Dir class contains functionality for manipulating directory names in a cross-platform way.

$dir = Path::Class::Dir->new( <dir1>, <dir2>, ... )

$dir = dir( <dir1>, <dir2>, ... )

Creates a new CWPath::Class::Dir object and returns it. The arguments specify names of directories which will be joined to create a single directory object. A volume may also be specified as the first argument, or as part of the first argument. You can use platform-neutral syntax:

  my $dir = dir( 'foo', 'bar', 'baz' );

or platform-native syntax:

  my $dir = dir( 'foo/bar/baz' );

or a mixture of the two:

  my $dir = dir( 'foo/bar', 'baz' );

All three of the above examples create relative paths. To create an absolute path, either use the platform native syntax for doing so:

  my $dir = dir( '/var/tmp' );

or use an empty string as the first argument:

  my $dir = dir( '', 'var', 'tmp' );

If the second form seems awkward, that's somewhat intentional - paths like CW/var/tmp or CW\Windows aren't cross-platform concepts in the first place (many non-Unix platforms don't have a notion of a root directory), so they probably shouldn't appear in your code if you're trying to be cross-platform. The first form is perfectly natural, because paths like this may come from config files, user input, or whatever. As a special case, since it doesn't otherwise mean anything useful and it's convenient to define this way, CWPath::Class::Dir->new() (or CWdir()) refers to the current directory (CWFile::Spec->curdir). To get the current directory as an absolute path, do CWdir()->absolute.

$dir->stringify

This method is called internally when a CWPath::Class::Dir object is used in a string context, so the following are equivalent:

  $string = $dir->stringify;
  $string = "$dir";

$dir->volume

Returns the volume (e.g. CWC: on Windows, CWMacintosh HD: on Mac OS, etc.) of the directory object, if any. Otherwise, returns the empty string.

$dir->is_dir

Returns a boolean value indicating whether this object represents a directory. Not surprisingly, CWPath::Class::File objects always return false, and CWPath::Class::Dir objects always return true.

$dir->is_absolute

Returns true or false depending on whether the directory refers to an absolute path specifier (like CW/usr/local or CW\Windows).

$dir->cleanup

Performs a logical cleanup of the file path. For instance:

  my $dir = dir('/foo//baz/./foo')->cleanup;
  # $dir now represents '/foo/baz/foo';

Returns a CWPath::Class::File object representing an entry in CW$dir or one of its subdirectories. Internally, this just calls CWPath::Class::File->new( @_ ). Returns a new CWPath::Class::Dir object representing a subdirectory of CW$dir. Returns the parent directory of CW$dir. Note that this is the logical parent, not necessarily the physical parent. It really means we just chop off entries from the end of the directory list until we cain't chop no more. If the directory is relative, we start using the relative forms of parent directories. The following code demonstrates the behavior on absolute and relative directories:

  $dir = dir('/foo/bar');
  for (1..6) {
    print "Absolute: $dir\n";
    $dir = $dir->parent;
  }

  $dir = dir('foo/bar');
  for (1..6) {
    print "Relative: $dir\n";
    $dir = $dir->parent;
  }

  ########### Output on Unix ################
  Absolute: /foo/bar
  Absolute: /foo
  Absolute: /
  Absolute: /
  Absolute: /
  Absolute: /
  Relative: foo/bar
  Relative: foo
  Relative: .
  Relative: ..
  Relative: ../..
  Relative: ../../..

Returns a CWPath::Class::Dir object representing CW$dir as an absolute path. An optional argument, given as either a string or a CWPath::Class::Dir object, specifies the directory to use as the base of relativity - otherwise the current working directory will be used. Returns a CWPath::Class::Dir object representing CW$dir as a relative path. An optional argument, given as either a string or a CWPath::Class::Dir object, specifies the directory to use as the base of relativity - otherwise the current working directory will be used. Returns true if this directory spec subsumes the other spec, and false otherwise. Think of subsumes as contains, but we only look at the specs, not whether CW$dir actually contains CW$other on the filesystem. The CW$other argument may be a CWPath::Class::Dir object, a CWPath::Class::File object, or a string. In the latter case, we assume it's a directory.

  # Examples:
  dir('foo/bar' )->subsumes(dir('foo/bar/baz'))  # True
  dir('/foo/bar')->subsumes(dir('/foo/bar/baz')) # True
  dir('foo/bar' )->subsumes(dir('bar/baz'))      # False
  dir('/foo/bar')->subsumes(dir('foo/bar'))      # False

Returns a CWPath::Class::Dir object representing CW$dir as it would be specified on a system of type CW$type. Known types include CWUnix, CWWin32, CWMac, CWVMS, and CWOS2, i.e. anything for which there is a subclass of CWFile::Spec. Any generated objects (subdirectories, files, parents, etc.) will also retain this type. Returns a CWPath::Class::Dir object representing CW$dir as it would be specified on a system of type CW$type. Known types include CWUnix, CWWin32, CWMac, CWVMS, and CWOS2, i.e. anything for which there is a subclass of CWFile::Spec. The arguments in CW@args are the same as they would be specified in CWnew(). Returns the list of strings internally representing this directory structure. Each successive member of the list is understood to be an entry in its predecessor's directory list. By contract, CWPath::Class->new( $dir->dir_list ) should be equivalent to CW$dir. The semantics of this method are similar to Perl's CWsplice or CWsubstr functions; they return CWLENGTH elements starting at CWOFFSET. If CWLENGTH is omitted, returns all the elements starting at CWOFFSET up to the end of the list. If CWLENGTH is negative, returns the elements from CWOFFSET onward except for CW-LENGTH elements at the end. If CWOFFSET is negative, it counts backward CWOFFSET elements from the end of the list. If CWOFFSET and CWLENGTH are both omitted, the entire list is returned. In a scalar context, CWdir_list() with no arguments returns the number of entries in the directory list; CWdir_list(OFFSET) returns the single element at that offset; CWdir_list(OFFSET, LENGTH) returns the final element that would have been returned in a list context. Passes CW$dir to CWIO::Dir->open and returns the result as an CWIO::Dir object. If the opening fails, CWundef is returned and CW$! is set. Passes all arguments, including CW$dir, to CWFile::Path::mkpath() and returns the result (a list of all directories created). Passes all arguments, including CW$dir, to CWFile::Path::rmtree() and returns the result (the number of files successfully deleted).

$dir->remove()

Removes the directory, which must be empty. Returns a boolean value indicating whether or not the directory was successfully removed. This method is mainly provided for consistency with CWPath::Class::File's CWremove() method. A convenient way to iterate through directory contents. The first time CWnext() is called, it will CWopen() the directory and read the first item from it, returning the result as a CWPath::Class::Dir or CWPath::Class::File object (depending, of course, on its actual type). Each subsequent call to CWnext() will simply iterate over the directory's contents, until there are no more items in the directory, and then the undefined value is returned. For example, to iterate over all the regular files in a directory:

  while (my $file = $dir->next) {
    next unless -f $file;
    my $fh = $file->open('r') or die "Can't read $file: $!";
    ...
  }

If an error occurs when opening the directory (for instance, it doesn't exist or isn't readable), CWnext() will throw an exception with the value of CW$!. Invokes CWFile::stat::stat() on this directory and returns a CWFile::stat object representing the result. Same as CWstat(), but if CW$file is a symbolic link, CWlstat() stats the link instead of the directory the link points to.

Ken Williams, ken@mathforum.org

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