View Source filelib (stdlib v6.0)

File utilities, such as wildcard matching of filenames.

This module contains utilities on a higher level than the file module.

This module does not support "raw" filenames (that is, files whose names do not comply with the expected encoding). Such files are ignored by the functions in this module.

For more information about raw filenames, see the file module.

Note

Functionality in this module generally assumes valid input and does not necessarily fail on input that does not use a valid encoding, but may instead very likely produce invalid output.

File operations used to accept filenames containing null characters (integer value zero). This caused the name to be truncated and in some cases arguments to primitive operations to be mixed up. Filenames containing null characters inside the filename are now rejected and will cause primitive file operations to fail.

Warning

Currently null characters at the end of the filename will be accepted by primitive file operations. Such filenames are however still documented as invalid. The implementation will also change in the future and reject such filenames.

Summary

Functions

Ensures that all parent directories for the specified file or directory name Name exist, trying to create them if necessary.

Ensures that all parent directories for the specified path Path exist, trying to create them if necessary.

Returns the size of the specified file.

Looks for a file of the given name by applying suffix rules to the given directory path.

Equivalent to find_source(Base, Dir), where Dir is filename:dirname(FilePath) and Base is filename:basename(FilePath).

Applies file extension specific rules to find the source file for a given object file relative to the object directory.

Folds function Fun over all (regular) files F in directory Dir whose basename (for example, just "baz.erl" in "foo/bar/baz.erl") matches the regular expression RegExp (for a description of the allowed regular expressions, see the re module).

Returns true if Name refers to a directory, otherwise false.

Returns true if Name refers to a file or a directory, otherwise false.

Returns true if Name refers to a (regular) file, otherwise false.

Returns the date and time the specified file or directory was last modified, or 0 if the file does not exist.

Sanitizes the relative path by eliminating ".." and "." components to protect against directory traversal attacks.

Returns a list of all files that match Unix-style wildcard string Wildcard.

Same as wildcard/1, except that Cwd is used instead of the working directory.

Types

Link to this type

dirname()

View Source (not exported)
-type dirname() :: filename().
Link to this type

dirname_all()

View Source (not exported)
-type dirname_all() :: filename_all().
Link to this type

filename()

View Source (not exported)
-type filename() :: file:name().
Link to this type

filename_all()

View Source (not exported)
-type filename_all() :: file:name_all().
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find_file_rule()

View Source (not exported)
-type find_file_rule() :: {ObjDirSuffix :: string(), SrcDirSuffix :: string()}.
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find_source_rule()

View Source (not exported)
-type find_source_rule() :: {ObjExtension :: string(), SrcExtension :: string(), [find_file_rule()]}.

Functions

-spec ensure_dir(Name) -> ok | {error, Reason}
              when Name :: filename_all() | dirname_all(), Reason :: file:posix().

Ensures that all parent directories for the specified file or directory name Name exist, trying to create them if necessary.

Returns ok if all parent directories already exist or can be created. Returns {error, Reason} if some parent directory does not exist and cannot be created.

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ensure_path(Path)

View Source (since OTP 25.0)
-spec ensure_path(Path) -> ok | {error, Reason} when Path :: dirname_all(), Reason :: file:posix().

Ensures that all parent directories for the specified path Path exist, trying to create them if necessary.

Unlike ensure_dir/1, this function will attempt to create all path segments as a directory, including the last segment.

Returns ok if all parent directories already exist or can be created. Returns {error, Reason} if some parent directory does not exist and cannot be created.

-spec file_size(Filename) -> non_neg_integer() when Filename :: filename_all().

Returns the size of the specified file.

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find_file(Filename, Dir)

View Source (since OTP 20.0)
-spec find_file(Filename :: filename(), Dir :: filename()) -> {ok, filename()} | {error, not_found}.

Equivalent to find_file(Filename, Dir, [])

Link to this function

find_file/3

View Source (since OTP 20.0)
-spec find_file(filename(), filename(), [find_file_rule()]) -> {ok, filename()} | {error, not_found}.

Looks for a file of the given name by applying suffix rules to the given directory path.

For example, a rule {"ebin", "src"} means that if the directory path ends with "ebin", the corresponding path ending in "src" should be searched.

If Rules is left out or is an empty list, the default system rules are used. See also the Kernel application parameter source_search_rules.

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find_source(FilePath)

View Source (since OTP 20.0)
-spec find_source(filename()) -> {ok, filename()} | {error, not_found}.

Equivalent to find_source(Base, Dir), where Dir is filename:dirname(FilePath) and Base is filename:basename(FilePath).

Link to this function

find_source(Filename, Dir)

View Source (since OTP 20.0)
-spec find_source(filename(), filename()) -> {ok, filename()} | {error, not_found}.

Equivalent to find_source(Filename, Dir, [])

Link to this function

find_source/3

View Source (since OTP 20.0)
-spec find_source(filename(), filename(), [find_source_rule()]) -> {ok, filename()} | {error, not_found}.

Applies file extension specific rules to find the source file for a given object file relative to the object directory.

For example, for a file with the extension .beam, the default rule is to look for a file with a corresponding extension .erl by replacing the suffix "ebin" of the object directory path with "src" or "src/*". The file search is done through find_file/3. The directory of the object file is always tried before any other directory specified by the rules.

If Rules is left out or is an empty list, the default system rules are used. See also the Kernel application parameter source_search_rules.

Link to this function

fold_files(Dir, RegExp, Recursive, Fun, AccIn)

View Source
-spec fold_files(Dir, RegExp, Recursive, Fun, AccIn) -> AccOut
              when
                  Dir :: dirname(),
                  RegExp :: string(),
                  Recursive :: boolean(),
                  Fun :: fun((F :: file:filename(), AccIn) -> AccOut),
                  AccIn :: term(),
                  AccOut :: term().

Folds function Fun over all (regular) files F in directory Dir whose basename (for example, just "baz.erl" in "foo/bar/baz.erl") matches the regular expression RegExp (for a description of the allowed regular expressions, see the re module).

If Recursive is true, all subdirectories to Dir are processed. The regular expression matching is only done on the filename without the directory part.

If Unicode filename translation is in effect and the file system is transparent, filenames that cannot be interpreted as Unicode can be encountered, in which case the fun() must be prepared to handle raw filenames (that is, binaries). If the regular expression contains codepoints > 255, it does not match filenames that do not conform to the expected character encoding (that is, are not encoded in valid UTF-8).

For more information about raw filenames, see the file module.

-spec is_dir(Name) -> boolean() when Name :: filename_all() | dirname_all().

Returns true if Name refers to a directory, otherwise false.

-spec is_file(Name) -> boolean() when Name :: filename_all() | dirname_all().

Returns true if Name refers to a file or a directory, otherwise false.

-spec is_regular(Name) -> boolean() when Name :: filename_all().

Returns true if Name refers to a (regular) file, otherwise false.

-spec last_modified(Name) -> file:date_time() | 0 when Name :: filename_all() | dirname_all().

Returns the date and time the specified file or directory was last modified, or 0 if the file does not exist.

Link to this function

safe_relative_path(Filename, Cwd)

View Source (since OTP 23.0)
-spec safe_relative_path(Filename, Cwd) -> unsafe | SafeFilename
                      when
                          Filename :: filename_all(),
                          Cwd :: filename_all(),
                          SafeFilename :: filename_all().

Sanitizes the relative path by eliminating ".." and "." components to protect against directory traversal attacks.

Either returns the sanitized path name, or the atom unsafe if the path is unsafe. The path is considered unsafe in the following circumstances:

  • The path is not relative.
  • A ".." component would climb up above the root of the relative path.
  • A symbolic link in the path points above the root of the relative path.

Examples:

1> {ok, Cwd} = file:get_cwd().
...
2> filelib:safe_relative_path("dir/sub_dir/..", Cwd).
"dir"
3> filelib:safe_relative_path("dir/..", Cwd).
[]
4> filelib:safe_relative_path("dir/../..", Cwd).
unsafe
5> filelib:safe_relative_path("/abs/path", Cwd).
unsafe
-spec wildcard(Wildcard) -> [file:filename()] when Wildcard :: filename() | dirname().

Returns a list of all files that match Unix-style wildcard string Wildcard.

The wildcard string looks like an ordinary filename, except that the following "wildcard characters" are interpreted in a special way:

  • ? - Matches one character.

  • * - Matches any number of characters up to the end of the filename, the next dot, or the next slash.

  • ** - Two adjacent * used as a single pattern match all files and zero or more directories and subdirectories.

  • [Character1,Character2,...] - Matches any of the characters listed. Two characters separated by a hyphen match a range of characters. Example: [A-Z] matches any uppercase letter.

  • {Item,...} - Alternation. Matches one of the alternatives.

Other characters represent themselves. Only filenames that have exactly the same character in the same position match. Matching is case-sensitive, for example, "a" does not match "A".

Directory separators must always be written as /, even on Windows.

A character preceded by \ loses its special meaning. Note that \ must be written as \\ in a string literal. For example, "\\?*" will match any filename starting with ?.

Notice that multiple "*" characters are allowed (as in Unix wildcards, but opposed to Windows/DOS wildcards).

Examples:

The following examples assume that the current directory is the top of an Erlang/OTP installation.

To find all .beam files in all applications, use the following line:

filelib:wildcard("lib/*/ebin/*.beam").

To find .erl or .hrl in all applications src directories, use either of the following lines:

filelib:wildcard("lib/*/src/*.?rl")
filelib:wildcard("lib/*/src/*.{erl,hrl}")

To find all .hrl files in src or include directories:

filelib:wildcard("lib/*/{src,include}/*.hrl").

To find all .erl or .hrl files in either src or include directories:

filelib:wildcard("lib/*/{src,include}/*.{erl,hrl}")

To find all .erl or .hrl files in any subdirectory:

filelib:wildcard("lib/**/*.{erl,hrl}")
-spec wildcard(Wildcard, Cwd) -> [file:filename()]
            when Wildcard :: filename() | dirname(), Cwd :: dirname().

Same as wildcard/1, except that Cwd is used instead of the working directory.