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fileutil(n) file utilities fileutil(n) 





NAME


fileutil - Procedures implementing some file utilities






SYNOPSIS


package require Tcl 8


package require fileutil ?1.16.1?


::fileutil::lexnormalize path


::fileutil::fullnormalize path


::fileutil::test path codes ?msgvar?
    ?label?


::fileutil::cat (?options? file)...


::fileutil::writeFile ?options? file
    data


::fileutil::appendToFile ?options? file
    data


::fileutil::insertIntoFile ?options? file
    at data


::fileutil::removeFromFile ?options? file
    at n


::fileutil::replaceInFile ?options? file
    at n data


::fileutil::updateInPlace ?options? file
    cmd


::fileutil::fileType filename


::fileutil::find ?basedir ?filtercmd??


::fileutil::findByPattern basedir
    ?-regexp|-glob? ?--? patterns


::fileutil::foreachLine var filename cmd


::fileutil::grep pattern ?files?


::fileutil::install ?-m mode? source
    destination


::fileutil::stripN path n


::fileutil::stripPwd path


::fileutil::stripPath prefix path


::fileutil::jail jail path


::fileutil::touch ?-a? ?-c? ?-m?
    ?-r ref_file? ?-t time? filename
    ?...?


::fileutil::tempdir


::fileutil::tempdir path


::fileutil::tempdirReset


::fileutil::tempfile ?prefix?


::fileutil::maketempdir ?-prefix str?
    ?-suffix str? ?-dir str?


::fileutil::relative base dst


::fileutil::relativeUrl base dst










DESCRIPTION


This package provides implementations of standard unix
  utilities.



  
::fileutil::lexnormalize path

  
This command performs purely lexical normalization on the path and
      returns the changed path as its result. Symbolic links in the path are
      not resolved.
    
Examples:

  








    fileutil::lexnormalize /foo/./bar


    => /foo/bar


    fileutil::lexnormalize /foo/../bar


    => /bar






  
::fileutil::fullnormalize path

  
This command resolves all symbolic links in the path and returns
      the changed path as its result. In contrast to the builtin file
      normalize this command resolves a symbolic link in the last element of
      the path as well.

  
::fileutil::test path codes ?msgvar?
    ?label?

  
A command for the testing of several properties of a path. The
      properties to test for are specified in codes, either as a list of
      keywords describing the properties, or as a string where each letter is a
      shorthand for a property to test. The recognized keywords, shorthands, and
      associated properties are shown in the list below. The tests are executed
      in the order given to the command.
    
The result of the command is a boolean value. It will be true
        if and only if the path passes all the specified tests. In the
        case of the path not passing one or more test the first failing
        test will leave a message in the variable referenced by msgvar,
        if such is specified. The message will be prefixed with label, if
        it is specified. Note that the variabled referenced by
        msgvar is not touched at all if all the tests pass.

    

  







  

  
file readable

  

  
file writable

  

  
file exists

  

  
file executable

  

  
file isfile

  

  
file isdirectory







  
::fileutil::cat (?options? file)...

  
A tcl implementation of the UNIX cat command. Returns the contents
      of the specified file(s). The arguments are files to read, with
      interspersed options configuring the process. If there are problems
      reading any of the files, an error will occur, and no data will be
      returned.
    
The options accepted are -encoding,
        -translation, -eofchar, and --. With the exception
        of the last all options take a single value as argument, as specified by
        the tcl builtin command fconfigure. The -- has to be used
        to terminate option processing before a file if that file's name begins
        with a dash.

    
Each file can have its own set of options coming before it,
        and for anything not specified directly the defaults are inherited from
        the options of the previous file. The first file inherits the system
        default for unspecified options.

  

  
::fileutil::writeFile ?options? file data

  
The command replaces the current contents of the specified file
      with data, with the process configured by the options. The command
      accepts the same options as ::fileutil::cat. The specification of a
      non-existent file is legal and causes the command to create the file (and
      all required but missing directories).

  
::fileutil::appendToFile ?options? file
    data

  
This command is like ::fileutil::writeFile, except that the
      previous contents of file are not replaced, but appended to. The
      command accepts the same options as ::fileutil::cat

  
::fileutil::insertIntoFile ?options? file at
    data

  
This comment is similar to ::fileutil::appendToFile, except that
      the new data is not appended at the end, but inserted at a specified
      location within the file. In further contrast this command has to be given
      the path to an existing file. It will not create a missing file, but throw
      an error instead.
    
The specified location at has to be an integer number
        in the range 0 ... [file size file]. 0 will cause
        insertion of the new data before the first character of the existing
        content, whereas [file size file] causes insertion after the last
        character of the existing content, i.e. appending.

    
The command accepts the same options as
        ::fileutil::cat.

  

  
::fileutil::removeFromFile ?options? file at
    n

  
This command is the complement to ::fileutil::insertIntoFile,
      removing n characters from the file, starting at location
      at. The specified location at has to be an integer number in
      the range 0 ... [file size file] - n. 0 will
      cause the removal of the new data to start with the first character of the
      existing content, whereas [file size file] - n causes the
      removal of the tail of the existing content, i.e. the truncation of the
      file.
    
The command accepts the same options as
        ::fileutil::cat.

  

  
::fileutil::replaceInFile ?options? file at
    n data

  
This command is a combination of ::fileutil::removeFromFile and
      ::fileutil::insertIntoFile. It first removes the part of the
      contents specified by the arguments at and n, and then
      inserts data at the given location, effectively replacing the
      removed by content with data. All constraints imposed on at
      and n by ::fileutil::removeFromFile and
      ::fileutil::insertIntoFile are obeyed.
    
The command accepts the same options as
        ::fileutil::cat.

  

  
::fileutil::updateInPlace ?options? file
    cmd

  
This command can be seen as the generic core functionality of
      ::fileutil::replaceInFile. It first reads the contents of the
      specified file, then runs the command prefix cmd with that
      data appended to it, and at last writes the result of that invokation back
      as the new contents of the file.
    
If the executed command throws an error the file is not
        changed.

    
The command accepts the same options as
        ::fileutil::cat.

  

  
::fileutil::fileType filename

  
An implementation of the UNIX file command, which uses various
      heuristics to guess the type of a file. Returns a list specifying as much
      type information as can be determined about the file, from most general
      (eg, "binary" or "text") to most specific (eg,
      "gif"). For example, the return value for a GIF file would be
      "binary graphic gif". The command will detect the following
      types of files: directory, empty, binary, text, script (with interpreter),
      executable elf, executable dos, executable ne, executable pe, graphic gif,
      graphic jpeg, graphic png, graphic tiff, graphic bitmap, html, xml (with
      doctype if available), message pgp, binary pdf, text ps, text eps, binary
      gravity_wave_data_frame, compressed bzip, compressed gzip, compressed zip,
      compressed tar, audio wave, audio mpeg, and link. It further detects
      doctools, doctoc, and docidx documentation files, and tklib diagrams.

  
::fileutil::find ?basedir ?filtercmd??

  
An implementation of the unix command find. Adapted from the
      Tcler's Wiki. Takes at most two arguments, the path to the directory to
      start searching from and a command to use to evaluate interest in each
      file. The path defaults to ".", i.e. the current
      directory. The command defaults to the empty string, which means that all
      files are of interest. The command takes care not to lose itself in
      infinite loops upon encountering circular link structures. The result of
      the command is a list containing the paths to the interesting files.
    
The filtercmd, if specified, is interpreted as a
        command prefix and one argument is added to it, the name of the file or
        directory find is currently looking at. Note that this name is
        not fully qualified. It has to be joined it with the result of
        pwd to get an absolute filename.

    
The result of filtercmd is a boolean value that
        indicates if the current file should be included in the list of
        interesting files.

    
Example:

    

  








    # find .tcl files


    package require fileutil


    proc is_tcl {name} {return [string match *.tcl $name]}


    set tcl_files [fileutil::find . is_tcl]






  
::fileutil::findByPattern basedir
    ?-regexp|-glob? ?--? patterns

  
This command is based upon the TclX command recursive_glob,
      except that it doesn't allow recursion over more than one directory at a
      time. It uses ::fileutil::find internally and is thus able to and
      does follow symbolic links, something the TclX command does not do.
      First argument is the directory to start the search in, second argument is
      a list of patterns. The command returns a list of all files
      reachable through basedir whose names match at least one of the
      patterns. The options before the pattern-list determine the style of
      matching, either regexp or glob. glob-style matching is the default if no
      options are given. Usage of the option -- stops option processing.
      This allows the use of a leading '-' in the patterns.

  
::fileutil::foreachLine var filename cmd

  
The command reads the file filename and executes the script
      cmd for every line in the file. During the execution of the script
      the variable var is set to the contents of the current line. The
      return value of this command is the result of the last invocation of the
      script cmd or the empty string if the file was empty.

  
::fileutil::grep pattern ?files?

  
Implementation of grep. Adapted from the Tcler's Wiki. The first
      argument defines the pattern to search for. This is followed by a
      list of files to search through. The list is optional and
      stdin will be used if it is missing. The result of the procedures
      is a list containing the matches. Each match is a single element of the
      list and contains filename, number and contents of the matching line,
      separated by a colons.

  
::fileutil::install ?-m mode? source
    destination

  
The install command is similar in functionality to the
      install command found on many unix systems, or the shell script
      distributed with many source distributions (unix/install-sh in the Tcl
      sources, for example). It copies source, which can be either a file
      or directory to destination, which should be a directory, unless
      source is also a single file. The ?-m? option lets the user specify
      a unix-style mode (either octal or symbolic - see file
    attributes.

  
::fileutil::stripN path n

  
Removes the first n elements from the specified path and
      returns the modified path. If n is greater than the number of
      components in path an empty string is returned. The number of
      components in a given path may be determined by performing llength
      on the list returned by file split.

  
::fileutil::stripPwd path

  
If, and only if the path is inside of the directory returned by
      [pwd] (or the current working directory itself) it is made relative
      to that directory. In other words, the current working directory is
      stripped from the path. The possibly modified path is returned as
      the result of the command. If the current working directory itself was
      specified for path the result is the string
    ".".

  
::fileutil::stripPath prefix path

  
If, and only of the path is inside of the directory
      "prefix" (or the prefix directory itself) it is made
      relative to that directory. In other words, the prefix directory is
      stripped from the path. The possibly modified path is returned as
      the result of the command. If the prefix directory itself was specified
      for path the result is the string ".".

  
::fileutil::jail jail path

  
This command ensures that the path is not escaping the directory
      jail. It always returns an absolute path derived from path
      which is within jail.
    
If path is an absolute path and already within
        jail it is returned unmodified.

    
An absolute path outside of jail is stripped of its
        root element and then put into the jail by prefixing it with it.
        The same happens if path is relative, except that nothing is
        stripped of it. Before adding the jail prefix the path is
        lexically normalized to prevent the caller from using .. segments
        in path to escape the jail.

  

  
::fileutil::touch ?-a? ?-c? ?-m? ?-r
    ref_file? ?-t time? filename ?...?

  
Implementation of touch. Alter the atime and mtime of the specified
      files. If -c, do not create files if they do not already exist. If
      -r, use the atime and mtime from ref_file. If -t, use
      the integer clock value time. It is illegal to specify both
      -r and -t. If -a, only change the atime. If
      -m, only change the mtime.
    
This command is not available for Tcl versions less than
        8.3.

  

  
::fileutil::tempdir

  
The command returns the path of a directory where the caller can place
      temporary files, such as "/tmp" on Unix systems. The
      algorithm we use to find the correct directory is as follows:







  
[1]

  
The directory set by an invokation of ::fileutil::tempdir with an
      argument. If this is present it is tried exclusively and none of the
      following item are tried.

  
[2]

  
The directory named in the TMPDIR environment variable.

  
[3]

  
The directory named in the TEMP environment variable.

  
[4]

  
The directory named in the TMP environment variable.

  
[5]

  
A platform specific location:







  

  
"C:\TEMP", "C:\TMP",
      "\TEMP", and "\TMP" are tried in that
      order.

  
(classic) Macintosh

  
The TRASH_FOLDER environment variable is used. This is most likely not
      correct.

  

  
The directories "/tmp", "/var/tmp", and
      "/usr/tmp" are tried in that order.








The algorithm utilized is mainly that used in the Python standard
    library. The exception is the first item, the ability to have the search
    overridden by a user-specified directory.



  
::fileutil::tempdir path

  
In this mode the command sets the path as the first and only
      directory to try as a temp. directory. See the previous item for the use
      of the set directory. The command returns the empty string.

  
::fileutil::tempdirReset

  
Invoking this command clears the information set by the last call of
      [::fileutil::tempdir path]. See the last item too.

  
::fileutil::tempfile ?prefix?

  
The command generates a temporary file name suitable for writing to, and
      the associated file. The file name will be unique, and the file will be
      writable and contained in the appropriate system specific temp directory.
      The name of the file will be returned as the result of the command.
    
The code was taken from http://wiki.tcl.tk/772,
        attributed to Igor Volobouev and anon.

  

  
::fileutil::maketempdir ?-prefix str? ?-suffix
    str? ?-dir str?

  
The command generates a temporary directory suitable for writing to. The
      directory name will be unique, and the directory will be writable and
      contained in the appropriate system specific temp directory. The name of
      the directory will be returned as the result of the command.
    
The three options can used to tweak the behaviour of the
        command:

  







  

  
The initial, fixed part of the directory name. Defaults to tmp if
      not specified.

  

  
The fixed tail of the directory. Defaults to the empty string if not
      specified.

  

  
The directory to place the new directory into. Defaults to the result of
      fileutil::tempdir if not specified.






The initial code for this was supplied by Miguel Martinez
    Lopez [mailto:aplicacionamedida@gmail.com].



  
::fileutil::relative base dst

  
This command takes two directory paths, both either absolute or relative
      and computes the path of dst relative to base. This relative
      path is returned as the result of the command. As implied in the previous
      sentence, the command is not able to compute this relationship between the
      arguments if one of the paths is absolute and the other relative.
    
Note: The processing done by this command is purely
        lexical. Symbolic links are not taken into account.

  

  
::fileutil::relativeUrl base dst

  
This command takes two file paths, both either absolute or relative and
      computes the path of dst relative to base, as seen from
      inside of the base. This is the algorithm how a browser resolves a
      relative link found in the currently shown file.
    
The computed relative path is returned as the result of the
        command. As implied in the previous sentence, the command is not able to
        compute this relationship between the arguments if one of the paths is
        absolute and the other relative.

    
Note: The processing done by this command is purely
        lexical. Symbolic links are not taken into account.

  








WARNINGS AND INCOMPATIBILITIES



  
1.14.9

  
In this version fileutil::find's broken system for handling
      symlinks was replaced with one working correctly and properly enumerating
      all the legal non-cyclic paths under a base directory.
    
While correct this means that certain pathological directory
        hierarchies with cross-linked sym-links will now take about O(n**2) time
        to enumerate whereas the original broken code managed O(n) due to its
        brokenness.

    
A concrete example and extreme case is the
        "/sys" hierarchy under Linux where some hundred devices
        exist under both "/sys/devices" and
        "/sys/class" with the two sub-hierarchies linking to
        the other, generating millions of legal paths to enumerate. The
        structure, reduced to three devices, roughly looks like

  






	/sys/class/tty/tty0 --> ../../dev/tty0
	/sys/class/tty/tty1 --> ../../dev/tty1
	/sys/class/tty/tty2 --> ../../dev/tty1
	/sys/dev/tty0/bus
	/sys/dev/tty0/subsystem --> ../../class/tty
	/sys/dev/tty1/bus
	/sys/dev/tty1/subsystem --> ../../class/tty
	/sys/dev/tty2/bus
	/sys/dev/tty2/subsystem --> ../../class/tty





The command fileutil::find currently has no way to escape
    this. When having to handle such a pathological hierarchy It is recommended
    to switch to package fileutil::traverse and the same-named command it
    provides, and then use the -prefilter option to prevent the traverser
    from following symbolic links, like so:






    package require fileutil::traverse


    proc NoLinks {fileName} {


        if {[string equal [file type $fileName] link]} {


            return 0


        }


        return 1


    }


    fileutil::traverse T /sys/devices -prefilter NoLinks


    T foreach p {


        puts $p


    }


    T destroy









BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK


This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly
    contain bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category
    fileutil of the Tcllib Trackers
    [http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist]. Please also report any ideas for
    enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.


When proposing code changes, please provide unified diffs,
    i.e the output of diff -u.


Note further that attachments are strongly preferred over
    inlined patches. Attachments can be made by going to the Edit form of
    the ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the left-most
    button in the secondary navigation bar.






KEYWORDS


cat, file utilities, grep, temp file, test, touch, type






CATEGORY


Programming tools







  

    1.16.1
    tcllib