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NAME

       filename - Filename Manipulation Functions

DESCRIPTION

       The  module  filename  provides  a  number of useful functions for analyzing and manipulating file names.
       These functions are designed so that the Erlang code can work on many different platforms with  different
       formats  for  file names. With file name is meant all strings that can be used to denote a file. They can
       be short relative names like foo.erl, very long absolute  name  which  include  a  drive  designator  and
       directory names like D:\usr/local\bin\erl/lib\tools\foo.erl, or any variations in between.

       In Windows, all functions return file names with forward slashes only, even if the arguments contain back
       slashes. Use join/1 to normalize a file name by removing redundant directory separators.

       The  module  supports  raw  file names in the way that if a binary is present, or the file name cannot be
       interpreted according to the return value of file:native_name_encoding/0, a raw file name  will  also  be
       returned.  For  example filename:join/1 provided with a path component being a binary (and also not being
       possible to interpret under the current native file name encoding) will result in a raw file  name  being
       returned  (the  join  operation  will have been performed of course). For more information about raw file
       names, see the file module.

EXPORTS

       absname(Filename) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Filename = file:name_all()

              Converts a relative Filename and returns an absolute name.  No  attempt  is  made  to  create  the
              shortest absolute name, because this can give incorrect results on file systems which allow links.

              Unix examples:

              1> pwd().
              "/usr/local"
              2> filename:absname("foo").
              "/usr/local/foo"
              3> filename:absname("../x").
              "/usr/local/../x"
              4> filename:absname("/").
              "/"

              Windows examples:

              1> pwd().
              "D:/usr/local"
              2> filename:absname("foo").
              "D:/usr/local/foo"
              3> filename:absname("../x").
              "D:/usr/local/../x"
              4> filename:absname("/").
              "D:/"

       absname(Filename, Dir) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Filename = Dir = file:name_all()

              This  function  works  like  absname/1, except that the directory to which the file name should be
              made relative is given explicitly in the Dir argument.

       absname_join(Dir, Filename) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Dir = Filename = file:name_all()

              Joins an absolute directory with a relative filename. Similar to join/2,  but  on  platforms  with
              tight  restrictions  on  raw  filename  length  and no support for symbolic links (read: VxWorks),
              leading parent directory components in Filename are matched against trailing directory  components
              in Dir so they can be removed from the result - minimizing its length.

       basename(Filename) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Filename = file:name_all()

              Returns  the  last  component of Filename, or Filename itself if it does not contain any directory
              separators.

              5> filename:basename("foo").
              "foo"
              6> filename:basename("/usr/foo").
              "foo"
              7> filename:basename("/").
              []

       basename(Filename, Ext) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Filename = Ext = file:name_all()

              Returns the last component of Filename with the extension Ext stripped. This  function  should  be
              used   to   remove   a   specific   extension   which   might,   or   might  not,  be  there.  Use
              rootname(basename(Filename)) to remove an extension that exists, but you are not sure which one it
              is.

              8> filename:basename("~/src/kalle.erl", ".erl").
              "kalle"
              9> filename:basename("~/src/kalle.beam", ".erl").
              "kalle.beam"
              10> filename:basename("~/src/kalle.old.erl", ".erl").
              "kalle.old"
              11> filename:rootname(filename:basename("~/src/kalle.erl")).
              "kalle"
              12> filename:rootname(filename:basename("~/src/kalle.beam")).
              "kalle"

       dirname(Filename) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Filename = file:name_all()

              Returns the directory part of Filename.

              13> filename:dirname("/usr/src/kalle.erl").
              "/usr/src"
              14> filename:dirname("kalle.erl").
              "."

              5> filename:dirname("\\usr\\src/kalle.erl"). % Windows
              "/usr/src"

       extension(Filename) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Filename = file:name_all()

              Returns the file extension of Filename, including the period. Returns an empty string if there  is
              no extension.

              15> filename:extension("foo.erl").
              ".erl"
              16> filename:extension("beam.src/kalle").
              []

       flatten(Filename) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Filename = file:name_all()

              Converts  a  possibly deep list filename consisting of characters and atoms into the corresponding
              flat string filename.

       join(Components) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Components = [file:name_all()]

              Joins a list of file name Components  with  directory  separators.  If  one  of  the  elements  of
              Components  includes  an  absolute  path,  for example "/xxx", the preceding elements, if any, are
              removed from the result.

              The result is "normalized":

                * Redundant directory separators are removed.

                * In Windows, all directory separators are forward slashes and the  drive  letter  is  in  lower
                  case.

              17> filename:join(["/usr", "local", "bin"]).
              "/usr/local/bin"
              18> filename:join(["a/b///c/"]).
              "a/b/c"

              6> filename:join(["B:a\\b///c/"]). % Windows
              "b:a/b/c"

       join(Name1, Name2) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Name1 = Name2 = file:name_all()

              Joins two file name components with directory separators. Equivalent to join([Name1, Name2]).

       nativename(Path) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Path = file:name_all()

              Converts  Path  to  a  form  accepted  by the command shell and native applications on the current
              platform. On Windows, forward slashes is converted to backward slashes. On all platforms, the name
              is normalized as done by join/1.

              19> filename:nativename("/usr/local/bin/"). % Unix
              "/usr/local/bin"

              7> filename:nativename("/usr/local/bin/"). % Windows
              "\\usr\\local\\bin"

       pathtype(Path) -> absolute | relative | volumerelative

              Types:

                 Path = file:name_all()

              Returns the type of path, one of absolute, relative, or volumerelative.

                absolute:
                  The path name refers to a specific file on a specific volume.

                  Unix example: /usr/local/bin

                  Windows example: D:/usr/local/bin

                relative:
                  The path name is relative to the current working directory on the current volume.

                  Example: foo/bar, ../src

                volumerelative:
                  The path name is relative to the current working directory on a specified volume, or it  is  a
                  specific file on the current working volume.

                  Windows example: D:bar.erl, /bar/foo.erl

       rootname(Filename) -> file:filename_all()

       rootname(Filename, Ext) -> file:filename_all()

              Types:

                 Filename = Ext = file:name_all()

              Remove  a filename extension. rootname/2 works as rootname/1, except that the extension is removed
              only if it is Ext.

              20> filename:rootname("/beam.src/kalle").
              /beam.src/kalle"
              21> filename:rootname("/beam.src/foo.erl").
              "/beam.src/foo"
              22> filename:rootname("/beam.src/foo.erl", ".erl").
              "/beam.src/foo"
              23> filename:rootname("/beam.src/foo.beam", ".erl").
              "/beam.src/foo.beam"

       split(Filename) -> Components

              Types:

                 Filename = file:name_all()
                 Components = [file:name_all()]

              Returns a list whose elements are the path components of Filename.

              24> filename:split("/usr/local/bin").
              ["/","usr","local","bin"]
              25> filename:split("foo/bar").
              ["foo","bar"]
              26> filename:split("a:\\msdev\\include").
              ["a:/","msdev","include"]

       find_src(Beam) ->
                   {SourceFile, Options} | {error, {ErrorReason, Module}}

       find_src(Beam, Rules) ->
                   {SourceFile, Options} | {error, {ErrorReason, Module}}

              Types:

                 Beam = Module | Filename
                 Filename = atom() | string()
                 Rules = [{BinSuffix :: string(), SourceSuffix :: string()}]
                 Module = module()
                 SourceFile = string()
                 Options = [Option]
                 Option = {i, Path :: string()}
                        | {outdir, Path :: string()}
                        | {d, atom()}
                 ErrorReason = non_existing | preloaded | interpreted

              Finds the source  filename  and  compiler  options  for  a  module.  The  result  can  be  fed  to
              compile:file/2 in order to compile the file again.

          Warning:
              We  don't  recommend  using this function. If possible, use beam_lib(3erl) to extract the abstract
              code format from the BEAM file and compile that instead.

              The Beam argument, which can be a string or an atom, specifies either the module name or the  path
              to the source code, with or without the ".erl" extension. In either case, the module must be known
              by the code server, i.e. code:which(Module) must succeed.

              Rules describes how the source directory can be found, when the object code directory is known. It
              is  a  list  of  tuples {BinSuffix, SourceSuffix} and is interpreted as follows: If the end of the
              directory name where the object is located matches BinSuffix, then the source code  directory  has
              the same name, but with BinSuffix replaced by SourceSuffix. Rules defaults to:

              [{"", ""}, {"ebin", "src"}, {"ebin", "esrc"}]

              If  the  source  file is found in the resulting directory, then the function returns that location
              together with Options. Otherwise, the next rule is tried, and so on.

              The function returns {SourceFile, Options} if it succeeds. SourceFile is the absolute path to  the
              source  file  without  the  ".erl"  extension.  Options include the options which are necessary to
              recompile the file with compile:file/2, but excludes options such as report or  verbose  which  do
              not  change  the  way code is generated. The paths in the {outdir, Path} and {i, Path} options are
              guaranteed to be absolute.

Ericsson AB                                       stdlib 1.19.4                                   filename(3erl)