modulereview
tye
<p>
File::Spec is the long-awaited standard method for doing common tasks with
file names and paths (file specifications or file specs) in a way that is
portable between different operating systems.
</p><h2>The Good</h2><p>
What it can do:
<ul><li><code>$cpath = File::Spec->canonpath( $path );</code>
<li><code>$dirpath = File::Spec->catdir( $dir1, $dir2, $dir3 );</code>
<li><code>$filepath = File::Spec->catfile( $dir1, $dir2, $dir3, $file );</code>
<li><code>$curdir= File::Spec->curdir(); # "." on Unix</code>
<li><code>$nul= File::Spec->devnull(); # "/dev/null" on Unix</code>
<li><code>$root= File::Spec->rootdir(); # "/" on Unix</code>
<li><code>$tmpdir= File::Spec->tmpdir(); # "/tmp" or $ENV{TMPDIR}, etc.</code>
<li><code>$updir= File::Spec->updir(); # ".." on Unix</code>
<li><code>@list= File::Spec->no_upwards( @list ); # Strips "." and ".."</code>
<li><code>$ignore= File::Spec->case_tolerant(); # Returns false under Unix</code>
<li><code>$abs= File::Spec->file_name_is_absolute($path);</code>
<li><code>@path= File::Spec->path(); # Returns $ENV{PATH} as an array.</code>
<li><code>($volume,$dirs,$file)= File::Spec->splitpath( $path [, $no_file ] );</code>
<li><code>@dirs= File::Spec->splitdir( $dirs );</code>
<li><code>$path= File::Spec->catpath( $vol, $dirs, $file );</code>
<li><code>$relpath= File::Spec->abs2rel( $path [, $base ] );</code>
<li><code>$abspath= File::Spec->rel2abs( $path [, $base ] );</code>
</ul></p><h2>The Bad</h2><p>
The documentation isn't OS-independant so you have to read the documentation
for <em>each</em> OS-specific component of File::Spec. Start with
<code>perldoc File::Spec</code> then <code>perldoc File::Spec::Unix</code>
(since that part of the module is the most complete).
</p><p>
Not all method are available on all platforms.
</p><p>
This module isn't available for even slightly old versions of Perl. Until and
unless that changes, you may want to back-port the functionality to older
versions of Perl yourself so that your code will still port to different
OSes.
</ul></p><h2>The Ugly</h2><p>
Getting File::Spec functionality for old versions of Perl in a portable, robust
manner. I hope to add more details on this later.
</p>
-
<a href="/index.pl?node=tye&lastnode_id=1072">tye</a>
(but my friends call me "Tye")
Portable ways to manipulate file specifications
Please try to use this module even when <em>you</em> don't need it