


fileutil(n)               file utilities              fileutil(n)


______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       fileutil - Procedures implementing some file utilities

SYNOPSIS
       package require Tcl  8

       package require fileutil  ?1.14.2?

       ::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




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fileutil(n)               file utilities              fileutil(n)


       ::fileutil::tempdir path

       ::fileutil::tempdirReset

       ::fileutil::tempfile ?prefix?

       ::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 ele-
              ment 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  msg-
              var is not touched at all if all the tests pass.


              read   file readable



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fileutil(n)               file utilities              fileutil(n)


              write  file writable

              exists file exists

              exec   file executable

              file   file isfile

              dir    file isdirectory

       ::fileutil::cat (?options? file)...
              A  tcl implementation of the UNIX cat command.  Returns the con-
              tents 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 fcon-
              figure. 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 com-
              mand accepts the same options as ::fileutil::cat. The specifica-
              tion  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 pre-
              vious  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 spec-
              ified 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.



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fileutil(n)               file utilities              fileutil(n)


       ::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 specify-
              ing  as  much  type  information  as can be determined about the
              file, from most general (eg, "binary" or "text")  to  most  spe-
              cific (eg, "gif").  For example, the return value for a GIF file
              would be "binary graphic gif".  The command will detect the fol-
              lowing  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  avail-
              able),  message pgp, binary pdf, text ps, text eps, binary grav-
              ity_wave_data_frame,  compressed  bzip,  compressed  gzip,  com-
              pressed  zip,  compressed tar, audio wave, audio mpeg, and link.
              It further detects doctools, doctoc,  and  docidx  documentation
              files.

       ::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



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fileutil(n)               file utilities              fileutil(n)


              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 cir-
              cular link structures. The result of the command is a list  con-
              taining 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  direc-
              tory  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 direc-
              tory  at a time. It uses ::fileutil::find internally and is thus
              able to and does follow symbolic links, something the TclX  com-
              mand  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 invoca-
              tion 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  proce-
              dures  is  a list containing the matches. Each match is a single



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fileutil(n)               file utilities              fileutil(n)


              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  dis-
              tributed  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 sym-
              bolic - 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 rela-
              tive 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 direc-
              tory. 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 normal-
              ized 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



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fileutil(n)               file utilities              fileutil(n)


              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 algo-
              rithm 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  exclu-
                     sively 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:

                     Windows
                             "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.

                      Unix   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



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fileutil(n)               file utilities              fileutil(n)


              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::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 rela-
              tive 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 com-
              mand.   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.


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       SF       Trackers       [http://source-
       forge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883].   Please  also report any ideas for
       enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.

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

CATEGORY
       Programming tools













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