File::Spec(3perl) Perl Programmers Reference Guide File::Spec(3perl)
NAME
File::Spec - portably perform operations on file names
SYNOPSIS
use File::Spec;
my $x = File::Spec->catfile('a', 'b', 'c');
which returns 'a/b/c' under Unix. Or:
use File::Spec::Functions;
my $x = catfile('a', 'b', 'c');
DESCRIPTION
This module is designed to support operations commonly performed on file
specifications (usually called "file names", but not to be confused with
the contents of a file, or Perl's file handles), such as concatenating
several directory and file names into a single path, or determining
whether a path is rooted. It is based on code directly taken from
MakeMaker 5.17, code written by Andreas König, Andy Dougherty, Charles
Bailey, Ilya Zakharevich, Paul Schinder, and others.
Since these functions are different for most operating systems, each set
of OS specific routines is available in a separate module, including:
File::Spec::Unix
File::Spec::Mac
File::Spec::OS2
File::Spec::Win32
File::Spec::VMS
The module appropriate for the current OS is automatically loaded by
File::Spec. Since some modules (like VMS) make use of facilities
available only under that OS, it may not be possible to load all modules
under all operating systems.
Since File::Spec is object oriented, subroutines should not be called
directly, as in:
File::Spec::catfile('a','b');
but rather as class methods:
File::Spec->catfile('a','b');
For simple uses, File::Spec::Functions provides convenient functional
forms of these methods.
METHODS
canonpath
No physical check on the filesystem, but a logical cleanup of a path.
$cpath = File::Spec->canonpath( $path ) ;
Note that this does *not* collapse x/../y sections into y. This is by
design. If /foo on your system is a symlink to /bar/baz, then
/foo/../quux is actually /bar/quux, not /quux as a naive ../-removal
would give you. If you want to do this kind of processing, you
probably want "Cwd"'s realpath() function to actually traverse the
filesystem cleaning up paths like this.
catdir
Concatenate two or more directory names to form a complete path ending
with a directory. But remove the trailing slash from the resulting
string, because it doesn't look good, isn't necessary and confuses
OS/2. Of course, if this is the root directory, don't cut off the
trailing slash :-)
$path = File::Spec->catdir( @directories );
catfile
Concatenate one or more directory names and a filename to form a
complete path ending with a filename
$path = File::Spec->catfile( @directories, $filename );
curdir
Returns a string representation of the current directory.
$curdir = File::Spec->curdir();
devnull
Returns a string representation of the null device.
$devnull = File::Spec->devnull();
rootdir
Returns a string representation of the root directory.
$rootdir = File::Spec->rootdir();
tmpdir
Returns a string representation of the first writable directory from a
list of possible temporary directories. Returns the current directory
if no writable temporary directories are found. The list of
directories checked depends on the platform; e.g. File::Spec::Unix
checks $ENV{TMPDIR} (unless taint is on) and /tmp.
$tmpdir = File::Spec->tmpdir();
updir
Returns a string representation of the parent directory.
$updir = File::Spec->updir();
no_upwards
Given a list of files in a directory (such as from readdir()), strip
out '.' and '..'.
SECURITY NOTE: This does NOT filter paths containing '..', like
'../../../../etc/passwd', only literal matches to '.' and '..'.
@paths = File::Spec->no_upwards( readdir $dirhandle );
case_tolerant
Returns a true or false value indicating, respectively, that
alphabetic case is not or is significant when comparing file
specifications. Cygwin and Win32 accept an optional drive argument.
$is_case_tolerant = File::Spec->case_tolerant();
file_name_is_absolute
Takes as its argument a path, and returns true if it is an absolute
path.
$is_absolute = File::Spec->file_name_is_absolute( $path );
This does not consult the local filesystem on Unix, Win32, OS/2, or
Mac OS (Classic). It does consult the working environment for VMS
(see "file_name_is_absolute" in File::Spec::VMS).
path
Takes no argument. Returns the environment variable "PATH" (or the
local platform's equivalent) as a list.
@PATH = File::Spec->path();
join
join is the same as catfile.
splitpath
Splits a path in to volume, directory, and filename portions. On
systems with no concept of volume, returns '' for volume.
($volume,$directories,$file) =
File::Spec->splitpath( $path );
($volume,$directories,$file) =
File::Spec->splitpath( $path, $no_file );
For systems with no syntax differentiating filenames from directories,
assumes that the last file is a path unless $no_file is true or a
trailing separator or /. or /.. is present. On Unix, this means that
$no_file true makes this return ( '', $path, '' ).
The directory portion may or may not be returned with a trailing '/'.
The results can be passed to "catpath()" to get back a path equivalent
to (usually identical to) the original path.
splitdir
The opposite of "catdir".
@dirs = File::Spec->splitdir( $directories );
$directories must be only the directory portion of the path on systems
that have the concept of a volume or that have path syntax that
differentiates files from directories.
Unlike just splitting the directories on the separator, empty
directory names ('') can be returned, because these are significant on
some OSes.
catpath()
Takes volume, directory and file portions and returns an entire path.
Under Unix, $volume is ignored, and directory and file are
concatenated. A '/' is inserted if need be. On other OSes, $volume
is significant.
$full_path = File::Spec->catpath( $volume, $directory, $file );
abs2rel
Takes a destination path and an optional base path returns a relative
path from the base path to the destination path:
$rel_path = File::Spec->abs2rel( $path ) ;
$rel_path = File::Spec->abs2rel( $path, $base ) ;
If $base is not present or '', then Cwd::cwd() is used. If $base is
relative, then it is converted to absolute form using "rel2abs()".
This means that it is taken to be relative to Cwd::cwd().
On systems with the concept of volume, if $path and $base appear to be
on two different volumes, we will not attempt to resolve the two
paths, and we will instead simply return $path. Note that previous
versions of this module ignored the volume of $base, which resulted in
garbage results part of the time.
On systems that have a grammar that indicates filenames, this ignores
the $base filename as well. Otherwise all path components are assumed
to be directories.
If $path is relative, it is converted to absolute form using
"rel2abs()". This means that it is taken to be relative to
Cwd::cwd().
No checks against the filesystem are made. On VMS, there is
interaction with the working environment, as logicals and macros are
expanded.
Based on code written by Shigio Yamaguchi.
rel2abs()
Converts a relative path to an absolute path.
$abs_path = File::Spec->rel2abs( $path ) ;
$abs_path = File::Spec->rel2abs( $path, $base ) ;
If $base is not present or '', then Cwd::cwd() is used. If $base is
relative, then it is converted to absolute form using "rel2abs()".
This means that it is taken to be relative to Cwd::cwd().
On systems with the concept of volume, if $path and $base appear to be
on two different volumes, we will not attempt to resolve the two
paths, and we will instead simply return $path. Note that previous
versions of this module ignored the volume of $base, which resulted in
garbage results part of the time.
On systems that have a grammar that indicates filenames, this ignores
the $base filename as well. Otherwise all path components are assumed
to be directories.
If $path is absolute, it is cleaned up and returned using "canonpath".
No checks against the filesystem are made. On VMS, there is
interaction with the working environment, as logicals and macros are
expanded.
Based on code written by Shigio Yamaguchi.
For further information, please see File::Spec::Unix, File::Spec::Mac,
File::Spec::OS2, File::Spec::Win32, or File::Spec::VMS.
SEE ALSO
File::Spec::Unix, File::Spec::Mac, File::Spec::OS2, File::Spec::Win32,
File::Spec::VMS, File::Spec::Functions, ExtUtils::MakeMaker
AUTHOR
Maintained by perl5-porters <perl5-porters@perl.org>.
The vast majority of the code was written by Kenneth Albanowski
"<kjahds@kjahds.com>", Andy Dougherty "<doughera@lafayette.edu>",
Andreas König "<A.Koenig@franz.ww.TU-Berlin.DE>", Tim Bunce
"<Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk>". VMS support by Charles Bailey
"<bailey@newman.upenn.edu>". OS/2 support by Ilya Zakharevich
"<ilya@math.ohio-state.edu>". Mac support by Paul Schinder
"<schinder@pobox.com>", and Thomas Wegner "<wegner_thomas@yahoo.com>".
abs2rel() and rel2abs() written by Shigio Yamaguchi
"<shigio@tamacom.com>", modified by Barrie Slaymaker
"<barries@slaysys.com>". splitpath(), splitdir(), catpath() and
catdir() by Barrie Slaymaker.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2004-2013 by the Perl 5 Porters. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
perl v5.40.1 2026-08-30 File::Spec(3perl)
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