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=head1 NAME
Path::Class - Cross-platform path specification manipulation for Perl
=head1 SYNOPSIS
use Path::Class;
my $dir = dir('foo', 'bar'); # Path::Class::Dir object
my $file = file('bob', 'file.txt'); # Path::Class::File object
# Stringifies to 'foo/bar' on Unix, 'foo\bar' on Windows, etc.
print "dir: $dir\n";
# Stringifies to 'bob/file.txt' on Unix, 'bob\file.txt' on Windows
print "file: $file\n";
my $subdir = $dir->subdir('baz'); # foo/bar/baz
my $parent = $subdir->parent; # foo/bar
my $parent2 = $parent->parent; # foo
my $dir2 = $file->dir; # bob
# Work with foreign paths
use Path::Class qw(foreign_file foreign_dir);
my $file = foreign_file('Mac', ':foo:file.txt');
print $file->dir; # :foo:
print $file->as_foreign('Win32'); # foo\file.txt
# Interact with the underlying filesystem:
# $dir_handle is an IO::Dir object
my $dir_handle = $dir->open or die "Can't read $dir: $!";
# $file_handle is an IO::File object
my $file_handle = $file->open($mode) or die "Can't read $file: $!";
=head1 DESCRIPTION
C<Path::Class> is a module for manipulation of file and directory
specifications (strings describing their locations, like
C<'/home/ken/foo.txt'> or C<'C:\Windows\Foo.txt'>) in a cross-platform
manner. It supports pretty much every platform Perl runs on,
including Unix, Windows, Mac, VMS, Epoc, Cygwin, OS/2, and NetWare.
The well-known module L<File::Spec> also provides this service, but
it's sort of awkward to use well, so people sometimes avoid it, or use
it in a way that won't actually work properly on platforms
significantly different than the ones they've tested their code on.
In fact, C<Path::Class> uses C<File::Spec> internally, wrapping all
the unsightly details so you can concentrate on your application code.
Whereas C<File::Spec> provides functions for some common path
manipulations, C<Path::Class> provides an object-oriented model of the
world of path specifications and their underlying semantics.
C<File::Spec> doesn't create any objects, and its classes represent
the different ways in which paths must be manipulated on various
platforms (not a very intuitive concept). C<Path::Class> creates
objects representing files and directories, and provides methods that
relate them to each other. For instance, the following C<File::Spec>
code:
my $absolute = File::Spec->file_name_is_absolute(
File::Spec->catfile( @dirs, $file )
);
can be written using C<Path::Class> as
my $absolute = Path::Class::File->new( @dirs, $file )->is_absolute;
or even as
my $absolute = file( @dirs, $file )->is_absolute;
Similar readability improvements should happen all over the place when
using C<Path::Class>.
Using C<Path::Class> can help solve real problems in your code too -
for instance, how many people actually take the "volume" (like C<C:>
on Windows) into account when writing C<File::Spec>-using code? I
thought not. But if you use C<Path::Class>, your file and directory objects
will know what volumes they refer to and do the right thing.
The guts of the C<Path::Class> code live in the L<Path::Class::File>
and L<Path::Class::Dir> modules, so please see those
modules' documentation for more details about how to use them.
=head2 EXPORT
The following functions are exported by default.
=over 4
=item file
A synonym for C<< Path::Class::File->new >>.
=item dir
A synonym for C<< Path::Class::Dir->new >>.
=back
If you would like to prevent their export, you may explicitly pass an
empty list to perl's C<use>, i.e. C<use Path::Class ()>.
The following are exported only on demand.
=over 4
=item foreign_file
A synonym for C<< Path::Class::File->new_foreign >>.
=item foreign_dir
A synonym for C<< Path::Class::Dir->new_foreign >>.
=item tempdir
Create a new Path::Class::Dir instance pointed to temporary directory.
my $temp = Path::Class::tempdir(CLEANUP => 1);
A synonym for C<< Path::Class::Dir->new(File::Temp::tempdir(@_)) >>.
=back
=head1 Notes on Cross-Platform Compatibility
Although it is much easier to write cross-platform-friendly code with
this module than with C<File::Spec>, there are still some issues to be
aware of.
=over 4
=item *
On some platforms, notably VMS and some older versions of DOS (I think),
all filenames must have an extension. Thus if you create a file
called F<foo/bar> and then ask for a list of files in the directory
F<foo>, you may find a file called F<bar.> instead of the F<bar> you
were expecting. Thus it might be a good idea to use an extension in
the first place.
=back
=head1 AUTHOR
Ken Williams, KWILLIAMS@cpan.org
=head1 COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) Ken Williams. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<Path::Class::Dir>, L<Path::Class::File>, L<File::Spec>
=cut
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