Provided by: wml_2.0.12ds1-9build1_amd64 bug

NAME

       abs2rel - convert an absolute path to a relative path

       rel2abs - convert a relative path to an absolute path

       realpath - convert a logical path to a physical path (resolve symlinks)

       splitpath - split a path in to volume, directory and filename components

       joinpath - join volume, directory, and filename components to form a path

       splitdirs - split directory specification in to component names

       joindirs - join component names in to a directory specification

       setfstype - set the file system type

SYNOPSIS

           use File::PathConvert qw(realpath abs2rel rel2abs setfstype splitpath
             joinpath splitdirs joindirs $resolved);

           $relpath = abs2rel($abspath);
           $abspath = abs2rel($abspath, $base);

           $abspath = rel2abs($relpath);
           $abspath = rel2abs($relpath, $base);

           $path = realpath($logpath) || die "resolution stopped at $resolved";

           ( $volume, $directory, $filename )= splitpath( $path ) ;
           ( $volume, $directory, $filename )= splitpath( $path, 'nofile' ) ;

           $path= joinpath( $volume, $directory, $filename ) ;

           @directories= splitdirs( $directory ) ;
           $directory= joindirs( @directories ) ;

DESCRIPTION

       File::PathConvert provides functions to convert between absolute and relative paths, and
       from logical paths to physical paths on a variety of filesystems, including the URL
       'filesystem'.

       Paths are decomposed internally in to volume, directory, and, sometimes filename portions
       as appropriate to the operation and filesystem, then recombined.  This preserves the
       volume and filename portions so that they may be returned, and prevents them from
       interfering with the path conversions.

       Here are some examples of path decomposition.  A '****' in a column indicates the column
       is not used in "abs2rel" and "rel2abs" functions for that filesystem type.

           FS      VOLUME                  Directory       filename
           ======= ======================= =============== =============
           URL     http:                   /a/b/           c?query
                   http://fubar.com        /a/b/           c?query
                   //p.d.q.com             /a/b/c/         ?query

           VMS     Server::Volume:         [a.b]           c
                   Server"access spec"::   [a.b]           c
                   Volume:                 [a.b]           c

           Win32   A:                      \a\b\c          ****
                   \\server\Volume         \a\b\c          ****
                   \\server\Volume         \a/b/c          ****

           Unix    ****                    \a\b\c          ****

           MacOS   Volume::                a:b:c           ****

       Many more examples abound in the test.pl included with this module.

       Only the VMS and URL filesystems indicate if the last name in a path is a directory or
       file.  For other filesystems, all non-volume names are assumed to be directory names.  For
       URLs, the last name in a path is assumed to be a filename unless it ends in '/', '/.', or
       '/..'.

       Other assumptions are made as well, especially MacOS and VMS. THESE MAY CHANGE BASED ON
       PROGRAMMER FEEDBACK!

       The conversion routines "abs2rel", "rel2abs", and "realpath" are the main focus of this
       package.  "splitpath" and "joinpath" are provided to allow volume oriented filesystems
       (almost anything non-unixian, actually) to be accomodated.  "splitdirs" and "joindirs"
       provide directory path grammar parsing and encoding, which is especially useful for VMS.

       setfstype
           This is called automatically on module load to set the filesystem type according to
           $^O. The user can call this later set the filesystem type manually.  If the name is
           not recognized, unix defaults are used.  Names matching /^URL$/i, /^VMS$/i,
           /^MacOS$/i, or /^(ms)?(win|dos)/32|nt)?$/i yield the appropriate (hopefully)
           filesystem settings.  These strings may be generalized in the future.

           Examples:

               File::PathConvert::setfstype( 'url' ) ;
               File::PathConvert::setfstype( 'Win32' ) ;
               File::PathConvert::setfstype( 'HAL9000' ) ; # Results in Unix default

       abs2rel
           "abs2rel" converts an absolute path name to a relative path: converting /1/2/3/a/b/c
           relative to /1/2/3 returns a/b/c

               $relpath= abs2rel( $abspath ) ;
               $relpath= abs2rel( $abspath, $base ) ;

           If $abspath is already relative, it is returned unchanged.  Otherwise the relative
           path from $base to $abspath is returned.  If $base is undefined the current directory
           is used.

           The volume and filename portions of $base are ignored if present.  If $abspath and
           $base are on different volumes, the volume from $abspath is used.

           No filesystem calls are made except for getting the current working directory if $base
           is undefined, so symbolic links are not checked for or resolved, and no check is done
           for existance.

           Examples

               # Unix
               'a/b/c' == abs2rel( 'a/b/c', $anything )
               'a/b/c' == abs2rel( '/1/2/3/a/b/c', '/1/2/3' )

               # DOS
               'a\\b/c' == abs2rel( 'a\\b/c', $anything )
               'a\\b/c' == abs2rel( '/1\\2/3/a\\b/c', '/1/2/3' )

               # URL
               'http:a/b/c'           == abs2rel( 'http:a/b/c', $anything )
               'http:a/b/c'           == abs2rel( 'http:/1/2/3/a/b/c',
                                                  'ftp://t.org/1/2/3/?z' )
               'http:a/b/c?q'         == abs2rel( 'http:/1/2/3/a/b/c/?q',
                                                  'ftp://t.org/1/2/3?z'  )
               'http://s.com/a/b/c?q' == abs2rel( 'http://s.com/1/2/3/a/b/c?q',
                                                  'ftp://t.org/1/2/3/?z')

       rel2abs
           "rel2abs" makes converts a relative path name to an absolute path: converting a/b/c
           relative to /1/2/3 returns /1/2/3/a/b/c.

               $abspath= rel2abs( $relpath ) ;
               $abspath= rel2abs( $relpath, $base ) ;

           If $relpath is already absolute, it is returned unchanged.  Otherwise $relpath is
           taken to be relative to $base and the resulting absolute path is returned.  If $base
           is not supplied, the current working directory is used.

           The volume portion of $relpath is ignored.  The filename portion of $base is also
           ignored. The volume from $base is returned if present. The filename portion of
           $abspath is returned if present.

           No filesystem calls are made except for getting the current working directory if $base
           is undefined, so symbolic links are not checked for or resolved, and no check is done
           for existance.

           "rel2abs" will not return a path of the form "./file".

           Examples

               # Unix
               '/a/b/c'       == rel2abs( '/a/b/c', $anything )
               '/1/2/3/a/b/c' == rel2abs( 'a/b/c', '/1/2/3' )

               # DOS
               '\\a\\b/c'                == rel2abs( '\\a\\b/c', $anything )
               '/1\\2/3\\a\\b/c'         == rel2abs( 'a\\b/c', '/1\\2/3' )
               'C:/1\\2/3\\a\\b/c'       == rel2abs( 'D:a\\b/c', 'C:/1\\2/3' )
               '\\\\s\\v/1\\2/3\\a\\b/c' == rel2abs( 'D:a\\b/c', '\\\\s\\v/1\\2/3' )

               # URL
               'http:/a/b/c?q'            == rel2abs( 'http:/a/b/c?q', $anything )
               'ftp://t.org/1/2/3/a/b/c?q'== rel2abs( 'http:a/b/c?q',
                                                      'ftp://t.org/1/2/3?z' )

       realpath
           "realpath" makes a canonicalized absolute pathname and resolves all symbolic links,
           extra ``/'' characters, and references to /./ and /../ in the path.  "realpath"
           resolves both absolute and relative paths.  It returns the resolved name on success,
           otherwise it returns undef and sets the valiable $File::PathConvert::resolved to the
           pathname that caused the problem.

           All but the last component of the path must exist.

           This implementation is based on 4.4BSD realpath(3).  It is not tested under other
           operating systems at this time.

           If '/sys' is a symbolic link to '/usr/src/sys':

               chdir('/usr');
               '/usr/src/sys/kern' == realpath('../sys/kern');
               '/usr/src/sys/kern' == realpath('/sys/kern');

       splitpath
           To be written...

       joinpath
           To be written...

           Note that "joinpath( splitpath( $path ) )" usually yields path.  URLs with directory
           components ending in '/.' or '/..' will be fixed up to end in '/./' and '/../'.

       splitdirs
           To be written...

       joindirs

BUGS

       "realpath" is not fully multiplatform.

LIMITATIONS

       •   In URLs, paths not ending in '/' are split such that the last name in the path is a
           filename.  This is not intuitive: many people use such URLs for directories, and most
           servers send a redirect.  This may cause programmers using this package to code in
           bugs, it may be more pragmatic to always assume all names are directory names.  (Note
           that the query portion is always part of the filename).

       •   If the relative and base paths are on different volumes, no error is returned.  A
           silent, hopefully reasonable assumption is made.

       •   No detection of unix style paths is done when other filesystems are selected, like
           File::Basename does.

AUTHORS

       Barrie Slaymaker <rbs@telerama.com> Shigio Yamaguchi <shigio@wafu.netgate.net>