Filepaths in julia with FilePathsBase

FilePathsBase
1. Quick start
2. Ref List
  1. Operations
  2. Aliases
FilePaths
More about Mode in FilePathsBase

Type Based Path Operation in Julia One of Julia's famous features is its type system. However, the julia base treat files and paths as strings. FilePathsBase.jl and FilePaths provide a type based approach for filesystems in Julia.

FilePathsBase

Quick start

Note

/: concat FilePaths and Strings, more expressive than using * for path join, e.g.: p"/path/to" / "prefix" * ".jl";
cwd(): similar to pwd(), but outputs FilePath type
stat(): stat files with input of FilePath type
warklpath(): walk through FilePaths, return array of paths;
relative(P1<:AbstractPath, P2<:AbstractPath): return paths of P1 relative to P2;
absolute(P<:AbstractPath): return the absolute path of P1;
islink(P): check if P is a link;
canonicalize(P): get the real path of symlink P
parents(P): get all parent dirs of P, returns an Array{AbstractPath}
mktemp(Systempath)/mktempdir(Systempath)
sync([f::Fucntion,] src, dst; delete=false, overwrite=true): recursively copy new and updated files from src to dst, also could apply function;
mode(P): return the Mode of P, in Mode type: "Mode("-rw-rw-rw-")";
chmod(P, "+x"),m::Mode + executeable(:ALL); m - readable(:ALL): change mode
rm(P; recursive=true);
exists(P)

🥑 Some design throughts and FAQs

FilePathsBase.jl or FilePaths.jl: FilePathsBase has less dependency, thus suitable for low level development, FilePaths extends FilePathsBase.jl at the cost of extra dependencies, thus more suitable for scripts/app-level packages.
Write code that works for both Strings and Paths:
Don't overly constrain your argument types;
Avoid manual string manipulations (eg. match, replace).
Stick to the overlapping base filesystem aliases (eg. joinpath vs /, normpath vs normalize).
@convert: a macro for method convertions.

Ref List

Operations

A table of common operations with Filesystem and FilePathsBase.

Filesystem	FilePathsBase.jl
`"/home/user/docs"`	`p"/home/user/docs"`
–	`Path()`
`pwd()`	`pwd(SystemPath) or cwd()`
`homedir()`	`homedir(SystemPath) or home()`
`cd()`	`cd()`
`joinpath()`	`/`
`basename()`	`basename()`
–	`hasparent, parents, parent`
`splitext`	`splitext`
–	`filename`
–	`extension`
–	`extensions`
`ispath`	`exists`
`realpath`	`canonicalize`
`normpath`	`normalize`
`abspath`	`absolute`
`relpath`	`relative`
`stat`	`stat`
`lstat`	`lstat`
`filemode`	`mode`
`filesize`	`filesize`
`mtime`	`modified`
`ctime`	`created`
`isdir`	`isdir`
`isfile`	`isfile`
`islink`	`islink`
`issocket`	`issocket`
`isfifo`	`isfifo`
`ischardev`	`ischardev`
`isblockdev`	`isblockdev`
`isexecutable (deprecated)`	`isexecutable`
`iswritable (deprecated)`	`iswritable`
`isreadable (deprecated)`	`isreadable`
`ismount`	`ismount`
`isabspath`	`isabsolute`
`splitdrive()[1]`	`drive`
–	`root (property)`
`split(p, "/")`	`segments (property)`
`expanduser`	`expanduser`
`mkdir`	`mkdir`
`mkpath`	`N/A (use mkdir)`
`symlink`	`symlink`
`cp`	`cp`
`mv`	`mv`
`download`	`download`
`readdir`	`readdir`
–	`readpath`
`walkpath`	`walkpath`
`rm`	`rm`
`touch`	`touch`
`tempname()`	`tempname(::Type{<:AbstractPath}) (or tmpname)`
`tempdir()`	`tempdir(::Type{<:AbstractPath}) (or tmpdir)`
`mktemp()`	`mktemp(::Type{<:AbstractPath}) (or mktmp)`
`mktempdir()`	`mktempdir(::Type{<:AbstractPath}) (or mktmpdir)`
`chmod`	`chmod (recursive unix-only)`
`chown (unix only)`	`chown (unix only)`
`read`	`read`
`write`	`write`
`@__DIR__`	`@__PATH__`
`@__FILE__`	`@__FILEPATH__`

Aliases

A slightly reduced list of operations/aliases that will work with both strings and path types. The Filesystem and FilePathsBase columns indicate what type will be returned from each each library. As you'd expect, most return types match the input argument(s).

Function Name	Filesystem	FilePathsBase
cd	AbstractString	AbstractPath
joinpath	AbstractString	AbstractPath
basename	AbstractString	AbstractString
splitext	(AbstractString, AbstractString)	(AbstractPath, AbstractString)
ispath	Bool	Bool
realpath	AbstractString	AbstractPath
normpath	AbstractString	AbstractPath
abspath	AbstractString	AbstractPath
relpath	AbstractString	AbstractPath
stat	StatStruct	FilePathsBase.Status
lstat	StatStruct	FilePathsBase.Status
filemode	UInt64	FilePathsBase.Mode
filesize	Int64	Int64
mtime	Float64	Float64
ctime	Float64	Float64
isdir	Bool	Bool
isfile	Bool	Bool
islink	Bool	Bool
issocket	Bool	Bool
isfifo	Bool	Bool
ischardev	Bool	Bool
isblockdev	Bool	Bool
ismount	Bool	Bool
isabspath	Bool	Bool
expanduser	AbstractString	AbstractPath
mkdir	AbstractString	AbstractPath
mkpath	AbstractString	AbstractPath
symlink	Nothing	Nothing
cp	AbstractString	AbstractPath
mv	AbstractString	AbstractPath
download	AbstractString	AbstractPath
readdir	AbstractString	AbstractString
rm	Nothing	Nothing
touch	AbstractString	AbstractPath
chmod	AbstractString	AbstractPath
chown	AbstractString	AbstractPath
read(fp, T)	T	T
write	Int64	Int64

FilePaths

FilePaths extends FilePathsBase with several useful functions:

📘 Functions in `FilePaths` glob: extend global match package Glob to support FilePaths

julia

glob(pattern, P::T) where T <: AbstractPath

julia

URI: extend URIparser packge URI to support FilePaths (I have not used URI)

@compat: write string and AbstractPath compatible codes:

julia

FilePaths.@compat function myrelative(x::AbstractPath, y::AbstractPath)
    return relative(x, y)
end

# the function myrelative could deal with AbstractPaths and Strings:
myrelative(cwd()， home())
myrelative(pwd(), homedir())
myrelative(pwd(), home())
# all return in AbstractPath type

julia

More about Mode in FilePathsBase

Mode type provides abstraction for working with posix file permissions

julia

struct Mode
    m::UInt64
end

# user groups symbols:
:ALL
:USER
:GROUP
:OTHER

# dispatch base functions for dealing with Mode:
+, -, Base.oct, 
isdir, isfile, islink, issocket, isfifo, ischardev, isblockdev
iswritable, isreadable, isexecutable # isexecutable is newly definde in FilePathsBase

# function alias
executable(usr_grps::Symbol...) = Mode(EXEC, usr_grps...)
readable(usr_grps::Symbol...) = Mode(READ, usr_grps...)
writable(usr_grps::Symbol...) = Mode(WRITE, usr_grps...)

julia