Table of Contents
File
class provides functionallity for reading and writing
binary and text files. A File
can be instantiated as an object,
giving the scripter complete flexibility when reading and writing files.
In addition, the File
class provides a set of static convenence
functions for reading and writing files in one go.
Typical use of a File
is:
// Reads an entire file in one go var log = File.read('file.log'); // Writes an entire file in one go File.write('copy_of_file.log', log); // Read and write a file line by line var infile = new File('file.log'); infile.open(File.ReadOnly); var outfile = new File('copy_of_file.log'); outfile.open(File.WriteOnly); while (!infile.eof) { var line = infile.readLine(); outfile.write( line ); } infile.close(); outfile.close();
AccessMode
is used in conjunction with File.open
to
specify the mode in which the file is opened.
ReadOnly; Opens the file in read-only mode.
WriteOnly; Opens the file in write-only mode. If this flag is
used with Append,
the file is not truncated; but if used on its own
(or with Truncate),
the file is truncated.
ReadWrite; Opens the file in read/write mode. The file is not truncated.
Append; Opens the file in append mode. (You must actually use
(WriteOnly | Append)
to make the file writable and to go into
append mode.) This mode is very useful when you want to write
something to a log file. The file index is set to the end of the file.
Note that the result is undefined if you position the file index
manually using at() in append mode.
Truncate; Truncates the file.
Translate; Enables carriage returns and linefeed translation for text files under Windows.
exists( fileName : String ) : Boolean; Returns true if fileName
exists; otherwise returns false.
remove( fileName : String ); Deletes the file fileName
if
possible; otherwise throws an exception.
write( fileName : String, content : String ); Writes the string
content to the file fileName
if possible (completely replacing the
original contents if the file already exists); otherwise throws an
exception.
read( fileName : String ) : String; Reads and returns the contents of
the file fileName
if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
isFile( fileName : String ) : Boolean; Returns true if fileName
is a file; otherwise returns false.
isDir( fileName : String ) : Boolean; Returns true if fileName
is a directory; otherwise returns false.
File( fileName : String ); Creates a file object with the with
fileName. If fileName
is missing or is not a String, an exception
is thrown.
name : String; The name of the file including the extension.
path : String; The path of the file.
fullName : String; The fullName of the file, including path, name, and extension.
baseName : String; The name of the file, excluding its path and extension.
extension : String; The file name's extension.
symLink : String; The expansion of the symlink if the file is a symlink; otherwise empty;
exists : Boolean; True if the file exists; otherwise false.
readable : Boolean; True if the file is readable; otherwise false.
writable : Boolean; True if the file is writable; otherwise false.
executable : Boolean; True if the file is executable; otherwise false.
hidden : Boolean; True if the file is hidden; otherwise false.
eof : Boolean; True if reading has reached the end of the file; otherwise false.
created : Date; The creation time of the file.
lastModified : Date; The last modification time of the file.
lastRead : Date; The last time the file was read.
size : Number; The size of the file, in bytes.
open( accessMode : Number ); Opens the file in the mode accessMode if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
close(); Closes the file.
remove((); Deletes the file if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
readByte() : Number; Reads one byte from the file if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
read() : String; Returns the entire content of the file as a string if it can be read; otherwise throws an exception.
readLine() : String; Reads one line from file if possible; otherwise throws an exception. Retains any trailing whitespace.
readLines() : String[]; Returns the contents of the file as an array of Strings, one for each line. Linebreaks are strippped from the strings. If the file could not be read, an exception is thrown.
writeByte( byte : Number ); Writes a byte to the file is possible; otherwise throws an exception.
write( data : String, length : Number ); Writes length
number of
characters from data
to the file if possible; otherwise throws an
exception.
writeLine( data : String ); Writes the line data
to the file and
adds a linebreak. If the file could not be written error
is
returned.
Dir
class provides access to directory structures and their
contents in a platform-independent way. It provides a means of listing
directory content, creating filenames with proper path separators,
etc.
An example use of the Dir class is:
var dir = new Dir; var codeFiles = dir.entryList('*.cpp'); for (var i = 0; i < codeFiles.length; ++i) print(codeFiles[i]);
Dirs; List directories only.
Files; List files only.
Drives; List disk drives only.
NoSymLinks; Do not list symbolic links (ignored by operating systems that don't support symbolic links).
All; List directories, files, drives and symlinks (this does not list broken symlinks unless you specify System).
TypeMask; A mask for the the Dirs, Files, Drives and NoSymLinks flags.
Readable; List files for which the application has read access.
Writable; List files for which the application has write access.
Executable; List files for which the application has execute access. Executables must be combined with Dirs or Files.
RWEMask; A mask for the Readable, Writable and Executable flags.
Modified; Only list files that have been modified (ignored under Unix).
Hidden; List hidden files (on Unix, files starting with a .).
System; List system files (on Unix, FIFOs, sockets, and device files)
AccessMask; A mask for the Readable, Writable, Executable Modified, Hidden and System flags
Name; Sort by name.
Time; Sort by time (modification time).
Size; Sort by file size.
Unsorted; Do not sort.
SortByMask; A Mask for Name, Time and Size.
DirsFirst; Put the directories first, then the files.
Reversed; Reverse the sort order.
IgnoreCase; Sort case-insensitively.
current : String; The current directory.
home : String; The home directory.
root : String; The root directory.
drives : String[]; An array of strings containing the drive names (c:, d:, etc); empty on Unix.
cleanDirPath( filePath : String ) : String; Removes all multiple
directory separators "/" and resolves any "."s or ".."s found in the
path, filePath.
convertSeparators( pathName : String ) : String; Returns pathName with the "/" separators converted to separators that are appropriate for the underlying operating system.
Dir( path : String ); Creates a directory object for path
path. If path
is empty, the current directory is used.
name : String; Contains the name of the directory; this is not the same as the path, e.g. a directory with the name "mail", might have the path "/var/spool/mail"
path : String; Contains the path, this may contain symbolic links, but never contains redundant ".", "..", or multiple separators.
absPath : String; Contains the absolute path (a path that starts with "/" or with a drive specification), which may contain symbolic links, but never contains redundant ".", "..", or multiple separators.
canonicalPath : String; Contains the canonical path, i.e. a path without symbolic links or redundant "." or ".." elements.
readable : Boolean; True if the directory is readable; otherwise false.
exists : Boolean; True if the directory exists; otherwise false.
filePath( fileName : String ) : String; Returns the path name of
the file fileName
in the directory.
absFilePath( fileName : String ) : String; Returns the absolute
path name of the file fileName
in the directory.
cd( dirName : String ); Changes the Dir's directory to dirName
if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
cdUp(); Changes directory by moving one directory up from the Dir's current directory if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
entryList( filter : String, filterSpec : Number, sortSpec : Number
) : String[]; Returns a list of the names of all the files and
directories in the directory, ordered in accordance with sortSpec
and filtered in accordance with filterSpec.
mkdir( dirName : String ); Creates the directory dirName
if
possible; otherwise throws an exception.
mkdir(); Creates this directory if possible possible; otherwise throws an exception.
mkdirs( dirName : String ); Creates the directory tree dirName
if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
mkdirs(); Creates this directory tree if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
rmdir( dirName : String ); Deletes the directory dirName
if
possible; otherwise throws an exception.
rmdir(); Deletes this directory if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
rmdirs( dirName : String ); Deletes the directory structure dirName if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
rmdirs(); Deletes this directory structure if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
fileExists( fileName : String ) : Boolean; Returns true if the file
fileName
exists; otherwise returns false.
setCurrent(); Sets the application's current working directory to this directory if possible; otherwise throws an exception.
Process.execute(),
and asynchronously using
{new
Process(...).start()}.
stdout : String; Contains the data sent to stdout
during the
last call to Process.execute().
This property is read-only.
stderr : String; Contains the data sent to stderr
during the
last call to Process.execute().
This property is read-only.
execute( command : String, stdin : String ); Executes command
synchronously and passes stdin
to its standard input if specified.
When the program ends its output is accessible through Process.stdout and Process.stderr.
command
can contain both the
program and command line arguments, e.g. "ls -la"
. The function
returns the executed commands return code on exit.
execute( command : String[], stdin : String ); Same as above,
except that command
is an array of strings, where the first item is
the name of the program and the following items are command line
arguments. This version is useful if you have arguments that contain
spaces or other characters that would need to be quoted if you just
passed a single string command line, since it takes care of the
quoting for you. Note that if the user passes an array of only one
element this function behaves like the overload taking a string, thus
splitting it into "command" and "arguments".
\ executeNoSplit( command : String[], stdin : String ); Same as
above, except that command
is an array of strings, where the first
item is the name of the program and the following items are command
line arguments. This version is useful if you have arguments that
contain spaces or other characters that would need to be quoted if you
just passed a single string command line, since it takes care of the
quoting for you. This function never splits the first argument,
regardless of the number of strings in the command array.
Process(); Creates a Process object without specifying the program or any arguments. This does not start a process.
Process( command : String ); Creates a Process object that will
execute command.
This does not start the process.
Process( command : String[] ); Same as above, except that command is an array of strings, where the first item is the name of the program and the following items are command line arguments. This version is useful if you have arguments that contain spaces or other characters that would need to be quoted if you just passed a single string command line, since it takes care of the quoting for you.
arguments : String[]; Contains an array of strings where the first item is the program to execute and the following items are the command line arguments.
workingDirectory : String; Contains the working directory for the process.
running : Boolean; True if the process is currently running; otherwise false. This property is read-only.
exitStatus : Number; Contains the exitStatus of the program when it has finished. This property is read-only.
start( env : String[] ); Tries to run a process for the command and
arguments that were specified with the argument
property or that
were specified in the constructor. The command is searched for in the
path for executable programs; you can also use an absolute path in the
command itself. If env
is not specified, the process is
started with the same environment as the starting process. If env
is
specified, then the values in the env
stringlist are interpreted as
environment setttings of the form VARIABLE=VALUE
and the process is
started with these environment settings. If the program could not be
started, an exception is thrown.
launch( stdin : String, env : String[] ); Runs the process and
writes the data stdin
to the process's standard input. If all the
data is written to standard input, standard input is closed. The
command is searched for in the path for executable programs; you can
also use an absolute path in the command itself. If env
is
unspecified, the process is started with the same environment as
the starting process. If env
is specified, then the values in the
string list are interpreted as environment setttings of the form VARIABLE=VALUE and the process is started with these environment
settings. If the program could not be started, an exception is thrown.
readStdout() : String; Reads what is currently available on the process's standard output.
readSterr() : String; Reads what is currently available on the process's standard error.
canReadLineStdout() : Boolean; Returns true if a line can be read from the process's standard output.
canReadLineStderr() : Boolean; Returns true if a line can be read from the process's standard error.
readLineStdout() : String; Reads one line of text from the process's standard output if available; otherwise returns an empty string.
readLineStderr() : String; Reads one line of text from the process's standard error if available; otherwise returns an empty string.
tryTerminate(); Asks the process to terminate. Processes can ignore
this if they wish. If you want to be certain that the process really
terminates, you can use kill()
instead.
kill(); Terminates the process. This is not a safe way to end a
process since the process will not be able to do any
cleanup. tryTerminate()
is safer, but processes can ignore
tryTerminate().
writeToStdin( buffer : String ); Writes the data buffer
to the
process's standard input. The process may or may not read this data.
closeStdin(); Closes the process's standard input.