NAME Path::Class - Cross-platform path specification manipulation 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: $!"; DESCRIPTION `Path::Class' is a module for manipulation of file and directory specifications (strings describing their locations, like `'/home/ken/foo.txt'' or `'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 `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, `Path::Class' uses `File::Spec' internally, wrapping all the unsightly details so you can concentrate on your application code. Whereas `File::Spec' provides functions for some common path manipulations, `Path::Class' provides an object-oriented model of the world of path specifications and their underlying semantics. `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). `Path::Class' creates objects representing files and directories, and provides methods that relate them to each other. For instance, the following `File::Spec' code: my $absolute = File::Spec->file_name_is_absolute( File::Spec->catfile( @dirs, $file ) ); can be written using `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 `Path::Class'. Using `Path::Class' can help solve real problems in your code too - for instance, how many people actually take the "volume" (like `C:' on Windows) into account when writing `File::Spec'-using code? I thought not. But if you use `Path::Class', your file and directory objects will know what volumes they refer to and do the right thing. The guts of the `Path::Class' code live in the `Path::Class::File' and `Path::Class::Dir' modules, so please see those modules' documentation for more details about how to use them. EXPORT The following functions are exported by default. file A synonym for `Path::Class::File->new'. dir A synonym for `Path::Class::Dir->new'. If you would like to prevent their export, you may explicitly pass an empty list to perl's `use', i.e. `use Path::Class ()'. The following are exported only on demand. foreign_file A synonym for `Path::Class::File->new_foreign'. foreign_dir A synonym for `Path::Class::Dir->new_foreign'. Notes on Cross-Platform Compatibility Although it is much easier to write cross-platform-friendly code with this module than with `File::Spec', there are still some issues to be aware of. * 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 foo/bar and then ask for a list of files in the directory foo, you may find a file called bar. instead of the bar you were expecting. Thus it might be a good idea to use an extension in the first place. AUTHOR Ken Williams, KWILLIAMS@cpan.org 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. SEE ALSO Path::Class::Dir, Path::Class::File, File::Spec