BlitzMax/Modules/System/File system
This page may need to be The BlitzMax filesystem module contains commands to perform operations on the computer's files and directories.
OpenFile, ReadFile and WriteFile return a stream object for reading and or writing data to files.
Directories can be examined file by file using a combination of the ReadDir, NextFile and CloseDir commands, or LoadDir can be used to read the file names of a directory into a string array.
File properties can be examined with the FileType, FileTime, FileSize and FileMode commands.
Files and directories (folders) can be created and deleted with the CreateFile, CreateDir DeleteFile and DeleteDir commands.
Finally, the FileSystem module contains various utility functions for handling file paths in a system independent manner. These commands include RealPath, StripDir, StripExt, StripAll, ExtractDir and ExtractExt.
Functions [edit]
StripDir [edit]
Function StripDir$( path$ )
Description: Strip directory from a file path
Example:
' stripdir.bmx
print stripdir("mypath/myfile.bmx") 'prints myfile.bmx
StripExt [edit]
Function StripExt$( path$ )
Description: Strip extension from a file path
Example:
' stripext.bmx
print stripext("mypath/myfile.bmx") 'prints mypath/myfile
StripAll [edit]
Function StripAll$( path$ )
Description: Strip directory and extension from a file path
Example:
' stripall.bmx
print stripall("mypath/myfile.bmx") 'prints myfile
StripSlash [edit]
Function StripSlash$( path$ )
Description: Strip trailing slash from a file path
Information: StripSlash will not remove the trailing slash from a 'root' path. For example, "/" or (on Win32 only) "C:/".
Example:
' stripslash.bmx
print stripslash("mypath/") 'prints mypath
ExtractDir [edit]
Function ExtractDir$( path$ )
Description: Extract directory from a file path
Example:
' extractdir.bmx
print extractdir("mypath/myfile.bmx") 'prints mypath
ExtractExt [edit]
Function ExtractExt$( path$ )
Description: Extract extension from a file path
Example:
' extractext.bmx
print extractext("mypath/myfile.bmx") 'prints bmx
CurrentDir [edit]
Function CurrentDir$()
Description: Get Current Directory
Returns: The current directory
Example:
' currentdir.bmx cd$=currentdir() print "CurrentDir()="+cd$
RealPath [edit]
Function RealPath$( path$ )
Description: Get real, absolute path of a file path
Example:
' realpath.bmx
print realpath("realpath.bmx") 'prints full path of this source
print realpath("..") 'prints full path of parent directory
FileType [edit]
Function FileType( path$ )
Description: Get file type
Returns: 0 if file at path doesn't exist, FILETYPE_FILE (1) if the file is a plain file or FILETYPE_DIR (2) if the file is a directory
Example:
' filetype.bmx
print filetype(".") 'prints 2 for directory type
print filetype("filetype.bmx") 'prints 1 for file type
print filetype("notfound.file") 'prints 0 for doesn't exist
FileTime [edit]
Function FileTime( path$ )
Description: Get file time
Returns: The time the file at path was last modified
Example:
' filetime.bmx
print filetime("filetime.bmx")
FileSize [edit]
Function FileSize( path$ )
Description: Get file size
Returns: Size, in bytes, of the file at path, or -1 if the file does not exist
Example:
' filesize.bmx
' the following prints the size of this source file in bytes
print filesize("filesize.bmx")
FileMode [edit]
Function FileMode( path$ )
Description: Get file mode
Returns: file mode flags
Example:
' filemode.bmx
' the following function converts the file mode to
' the standard unix permission bits string
Function Permissions$(mode)
local testbit,pos
local p$="rwxrwxrwx"
testbit=%100000000
pos=1
while (testbit)
if mode & testbit res$:+mid$(p$,pos,1) else res$:+"-"
testbit=testbit shr 1
pos:+1
wend
return res
End Function
print Permissions$(filemode("filemode.bmx"))
SetFileMode [edit]
Function SetFileMode( path$,mode )
Description: Set file mode
Example:
' setfilemode.bmx
' the following makes this source file readonly
writebits=%010010010
' read the file mode
mode=filemode("setfilemode.bmx")
'mask out the write bits to make readonly
mode=mode & ~writebits
'set the new file mode
setfilemode("setfilemode.bmx",mode)
CreateFile [edit]
Function CreateFile( path$ )
Description: Create a file
Returns: True if successful
Example:
' createfile.bmx
success=createfile("myfile")
if not success runtimeerror "error creating file"
CreateDir [edit]
Function CreateDir( path$,recurse=False )
Description: Create a directory
Returns: True if successful
Information: If recurse is true, any required subdirectories are also created.
Example:
' createdir.bmx
success=createdir("myfolder")
if not success runtimeerror "error creating directory"
DeleteFile [edit]
Function DeleteFile( path$ )
Description: Delete a file
Returns: True if successful
Example:
' deletefile.bmx
success=deletefile("myfile")
if not success runtimeerror "error deleting file"
RenameFile [edit]
Function RenameFile( oldpath$,newpath$ )
Description: Renames a file
Returns: True if successful
CopyFile [edit]
Function CopyFile( src$,dst$ )
Description: Copy a file
Returns: True if successful
CopyDir [edit]
Function CopyDir( src$,dst$ )
Description: Copy a directory
Returns: True if successful
DeleteDir [edit]
Function DeleteDir( path$,recurse=False )
Description: Delete a directory
Returns: True if successful
Information: Set recurse to true to delete all subdirectories and files recursively - but be careful!
Example:
' deletedir.bmx
success=deletedir("myfolder")
if not success runtimeerror "error deleting directory"
ChangeDir [edit]
Function ChangeDir( path$ )
Description: Change current directory
Returns: True if successful
Example:
' changedir.bmx print "CurrentDir()="+currentdir() ' change current folder to the parent folder changedir ".." ' print new CurrentDir() print "CurrentDir()="+currentdir()
ReadDir [edit]
Function ReadDir( path$ )
Description: Open a directory
Returns: An integer directory handle, or 0 if the directory does not exist
Example:
' readdir.bmx
dir=ReadDir(CurrentDir())
If Not dir RuntimeError "failed to read current directory"
Repeat
t$=NextFile( dir )
If t="" Exit
If t="." Or t=".." Continue
Print t
Forever
CloseDir dir
NextFile [edit]
Function NextFile$( dir )
Description: Return next file in a directory
Returns: File name of next file in directory opened using ReadDir, or an empty string if there are no more files to read.
CloseDir [edit]
Function CloseDir( dir )
Description: Close a directory
LoadDir [edit]
Function LoadDir$[]( dir$,skip_dots=True )
Description: Load a directory
Returns: A string array containing contents of dir
Information: The skip_dots parameter, if true, removes the '.' (current) and '..' (parent) directories from the returned array.
Example:
' loaddir.bmx
' declare a string array
local files$[]
files=loaddir(currentdir())
for t$=eachin files
print t
next
OpenFile [edit]
Function OpenFile:TStream( url:Object,readable=True,writeable=True )
Description: Open a file for input and/or output.
Information: This command is similar to the OpenStream command but will attempt to cache the contents of the file to ensure serial streams such as http: based url's are seekable. Use the CloseStream command when finished reading and or writing to a Stream returned by OpenFile.
Example:
' openfile.bmx
' the following prints the contents of this source file
file=openfile("openfile.bmx")
if not file runtimeerror "could not open file openfile.bmx"
while not eof(file)
print readline(file)
wend
closestream file
ReadFile [edit]
Function ReadFile:TStream( url:Object )
Description: Open a file for input.
Information: This command is similar to the ReadStream command but will attempt to cache the contents of the file to ensure serial streams such as http: based url's are seekable. Use the CloseStream command when finished reading and or writing to a Stream returned by OpenFile.
Example:
' readfile.bmx
' the following prints the contents of this source file
file=readfile("readfile.bmx")
if not file runtimeerror "could not open file openfile.bmx"
while not eof(file)
print readline(file)
wend
closestream file
WriteFile [edit]
Function WriteFile:TStream( url:Object )
Description: Open a file for output.
Information: This command is identical to the WriteStream command.
Example:
' writefile.bmx
file=writefile("test.txt")
if not file runtimeerror "failed to open test.txt file"
writeline file,"hello world"
closestream file
CloseFile [edit]
Function CloseFile( stream:TStream )
Description: Closes a file stream.
Information: After performing file operations on an open file make sure to close the file stream with either CloseFile or the identical CloseStream command.
