struct Path
inherits Struct

A Path represents a filesystem path and allows path-handling operations such as querying its components as well as semantic manipulations.

A path is hierarchical and composed of a sequence of directory and file name elements separated by a special separator or delimiter. A root component, that identifies a file system hierarchy, may also be present. The name element that is farthest from the root of the directory hierarchy is the name of a file or directory. The other name elements are directory names. A Path can represent a root, a root and a sequence of names, or simply one or more name elements. A Path is considered to be an empty path if it consists solely of one name element that is empty or equal to ".". Accessing a file using an empty path is equivalent to accessing the default directory of the process.

Examples

Path["foo/bar/baz.cr"].parent    # => Path["foo/bar"]
Path["foo/bar/baz.cr"].basename  # => "baz.cr"
Path["./foo/../bar"].normalize   # => Path["bar"]
Path["~/bin"].expand(home: true) # => Path["/home/crystal/bin"]

For now, its methods are purely lexical, there is no direct filesystem access.

Path handling comes in different kinds depending on operating system:

• Path.posix() creates a new POSIX path
• Path.windows() creates a new Windows path
• Path.new() means Path.posix on POSIX platforms and Path.windows() on Windows platforms.

# On POSIX system:
Path.new("foo", "bar", "baz.cr") == Path.posix("foo/bar/baz.cr")
# On Windows system:
Path.new("foo", "bar", "baz.cr") == Path.windows("foo\\bar\\baz.cr")

The main differences between Windows and POSIX paths: * POSIX paths use forward slash (/) as only path separator, Windows paths use backslash (\) as default separator but also recognize forward slashes. * POSIX paths are generally case-sensitive, Windows paths case-insensitive (see #<=>). * A POSIX path is absolute if it begins with a forward slash (/). A Windows path is absolute if it starts with a drive letter and root (C:\).

Path.posix("/foo/./bar").normalize   # => Path.posix("/foo/bar")
Path.windows("/foo/./bar").normalize # => Path.windows("\\foo\\bar")

Path.posix("/foo").absolute?   # => true
Path.windows("/foo").absolute? # => false

Path.posix("foo") == Path.posix("FOO")     # => false
Path.windows("foo") == Path.windows("FOO") # => true

Included modules

Comparable

Constants

SEPARATORS = separators(Kind.native)

The file/directory separator characters of the current platform. {'/'} on POSIX, {'\\', '/'} on Windows.

Class methods

.[](name : String | Path, *parts) : Path

Creates a new Path of native kind.

When compiling for a windows target, this is equal to Path.windows(), otherwise Path.posix is used.

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.[](parts : Enumerable) : Path

Creates a new Path of native kind.

When compiling for a windows target, this is equal to Path.windows(), otherwise Path.posix is used.

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.home : Path

Returns the path of the home directory of the current user.

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.new(ctx : YAML::ParseContext, node : YAML::Nodes::Node)

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.new(name : String | Path, *parts : String | Path) : Path

Creates a new Path of native kind.

When compiling for a windows target, this is equal to Path.windows(), otherwise Path.posix is used.

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.new(pull : JSON::PullParser)

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.new(parts : Enumerable) : Path

Creates a new Path of native kind.

When compiling for a windows target, this is equal to Path.windows(), otherwise Path.posix is used.

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.new(path : Path) : Path

Creates a new Path of native kind.

When compiling for a windows target, this is equal to Path.windows(), otherwise Path.posix is used.

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.new(name : String = "") : Path

Creates a new Path of native kind.

When compiling for a windows target, this is equal to Path.windows(), otherwise Path.posix is used.

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.posix(path : Path) : Path

Creates a new Path of POSIX kind.

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.posix(parts : Enumerable) : Path

Creates a new Path of POSIX kind.

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.posix(name : String | Path, *parts : String | Path) : Path

Creates a new Path of POSIX kind.

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.posix(name : String = "") : Path

Creates a new Path of POSIX kind.

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.windows(name : String = "") : Path

Creates a new Path of Windows kind.

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.windows(path : Path) : Path

Creates a new Path of Windows kind.

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.windows(parts : Enumerable) : Path

Creates a new Path of Windows kind.

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.windows(name : String | Path, *parts : String | Path) : Path

Creates a new Path of Windows kind.

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Methods

#/(part : Path | String) : Path

Appends the given part to this path and returns the joined path.

Path["foo"] / "bar" / "baz"     # => Path["foo/bar/baz"]
Path["foo/"] / Path["/bar/baz"] # => Path["foo/bar/baz"]

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#<=>(other : Path)

Compares this path to other.

The comparison is performed strictly lexically: foo and ./foo are not treated as equal. To compare paths semantically, they need to be normalized and converted to the same kind.

Path["foo"] <=> Path["foo"]               # => 0
Path["foo"] <=> Path["./foo"]             # => 1
Path.posix("foo") <=> Path.windows("foo") # => -1

Comparison is case-sensitive for POSIX paths and case-insensitive for Windows paths.

Path.posix("foo") <=> Path.posix("FOO")     # => 1
Path.windows("foo") <=> Path.windows("FOO") # => 0

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#==(other : self)

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#absolute? : Bool

Returns true if this path is absolute.

A POSIX path is absolute if it begins with a forward slash (/). A Windows path is absolute if it begins with a drive letter and root (C:\) or with a UNC share (\\server\share\).

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#anchor : Path?

Returns the concatenation of #drive and #root.

Path["/etc/"].anchor                           # => Path["/"]
Path.windows("C:Program Files").anchor         # => Path.windows("C:")
Path.windows("C:\\Program Files").anchor       # => Path.windows("C:\\")
Path.windows("\\\\host\\share\\folder").anchor # => Path.windows("\\\\host\\share\\")

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#basename(suffix : String? = nil) : String

Returns the last component of this path.

If suffix is given, it is stripped from the end.

Path["/foo/bar/file.cr"].basename # => "file.cr"
Path["/foo/bar/"].basename        # => "bar"
Path["/"].basename                # => "/"
Path[""].basename                 # => ""

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#dirname : String

Returns all components of this path except the last one.

Path["/foo/bar/file.cr"].dirname # => "/foo/bar"

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#drive : Path?

Returns a path representing the drive component or nil if this path does not contain a drive.

See #anchor for the combination of drive and #root.

Path.windows("C:\\Program Files").drive       # => Path.windows("C:")
Path.windows("\\\\host\\share\\folder").drive # => Path.windows("\\\\host\\share")

Note

Drives are only available for Windows paths. It can either be a drive letter (C:) or a UNC share (\\host\share).

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#drive_and_root : Tuple(String?, String?)

Returns a tuple of #drive and #root as strings.

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#each_parent(&block : Path -> )

Yields each parent of this path beginning with the topmost parent.

Path["foo/bar/file.cr"].each_parent { |parent| puts parent }
# Path["."]
# Path["foo"]
# Path["foo/bar"]

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#each_part(& : String -> )

Yields each component of this path as a String.

Path.new("foo/bar/").each_part # yields: "foo", "bar"

See #parts for more examples.

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#each_part : Iterator(String)

Returns an iterator over all components of this path.

parts = Path.new("foo/bar/").each_part
parts.next # => "foo"
parts.next # => "bar"
parts.next # => Iterator::Stop::INSTANCE

See #parts for more examples.

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#ends_with_separator?

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#expand(base : Path | String = Dir.current, *, home : Path | String | Bool = false, expand_base = true) : Path

Converts this path to an absolute path. Relative paths are referenced from the current working directory of the process (Dir.current) unless base is given, in which case it will be used as the reference path.

Path["foo"].expand                 # => Path["/current/path/foo"]
Path["~/foo"].expand(home: "/bar") # => Path["/bar/foo"]
Path["baz"].expand("/foo/bar")     # => Path["/foo/bar/baz"]

home specifies the home directory which ~ will expand to. "~" is expanded to the value passed to home. If it is false (default), home is not expanded. If true, it is expanded to the user's home directory (Path.home).

If expand_base is true, base itself will be expanded in Dir.current if it is not an absolute path. This guarantees the method returns an absolute path (assuming that Dir.current is absolute).

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#extension : String

Returns the extension of this path, or an empty string if it has no extension.

Path["foo.cr"].extension     # => ".cr"
Path["foo"].extension        # => ""
Path["foo.tar.gz"].extension # => ".gz"

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#hash(hasher)

See Object#hash(hasher)

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#inspect(io : IO)

Inspects this path to io.

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#join(part) : Path

Appends the given part to this path and returns the joined path.

Path["foo"].join("bar")     # => Path["foo/bar"]
Path["foo/"].join("/bar")   # => Path["foo/bar"]
Path["/foo/"].join("/bar/") # => Path["/foo/bar/"]

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#join(*parts) : Path

Appends the given parts to this path and returns the joined path.

Path["foo"].join("bar", "baz")       # => Path["foo/bar/baz"]
Path["foo/"].join("/bar/", "/baz")   # => Path["foo/bar/baz"]
Path["/foo/"].join("/bar/", "/baz/") # => Path["/foo/bar/baz/"]

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#join(parts : Enumerable) : Path

Appends the given parts to this path and returns the joined path.

Path["foo"].join("bar", "baz")           # => Path["foo/bar/baz"]
Path["foo/"].join(Path["/bar/", "/baz"]) # => Path["foo/bar/baz"]
Path["/foo/"].join("/bar/", "/baz/")     # => Path["/foo/bar/baz/"]

Non-matching paths are implicitly converted to this path's kind.

Path.posix("foo/bar").join(Path.windows("baz\\baq")) # => Path.posix("foo/bar/baz/baq")
Path.windows("foo\\bar").join(Path.posix("baz/baq")) # => Path.windows("foo\\bar\\baz/baq")

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#native? : Bool

Returns true if this is a native path for the target platform.

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#normalize(*, remove_final_separator : Bool = true) : Path

Removes redundant elements from this path and returns the shortest equivalent path by purely lexical processing. It applies the following rules iteratively until no further processing can be done:

1. Replace multiple slashes with a single slash.
2. Eliminate each . path name element (the current directory).
3. Eliminate each .. path name element (the parent directory) preceded by a non-.. element along with the latter.
4. Eliminate .. elements that begin a rooted path: that is, replace "/.." by "/" at the beginning of a path.

If the path turns to be empty, the current directory (".") is returned.

The returned path ends in a slash only if it is the root ("/", \, or C:\).

See also Rob Pike: Lexical File Names in Plan 9 or Getting Dot-Dot Right

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#parent : Path

Returns the parent path of this path.

If the path is empty, it returns ".". If the path is rooted and in the top-most hierarchy, the root path is returned.

Path["foo/bar/file.cr"].parent # => Path["foo/bar"]
Path["foo"].parent             # => Path["."]
Path["/foo"].parent            # => Path["/"]
Path["/"].parent               # => Path["/"]
Path[""].parent                # => Path["."]
Path["foo/bar/."].parent       # => Path["foo/bar"]

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#parents : Array(Path)

Returns all parent paths of this path beginning with the topmost path.

Path["foo/bar/file.cr"].parents # => [Path["."], Path["foo"], Path["foo/bar"]]

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#parts : Array(String)

Returns the components of this path as an Array(String).

Path.new("foo/bar/").parts                   # => ["foo", "bar"]
Path.new("/Users/foo/bar.cr").parts          # => ["/", "Users", "foo", "bar.cr"]
Path.windows("C:\\Users\\foo\\bar.cr").parts # => ["C:\\", "Users", "foo", "bar.cr"]
Path.posix("C:\\Users\\foo\\bar.cr").parts   # => ["C:\\Users\\foo\\bar.cr"]

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#posix? : Bool

Returns true if this is a POSIX path.

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#relative_to(base : Path | String) : Path

Same as #relative_to but returns self if self can't be expressed as relative path to base.

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#relative_to?(base : Path) : Path?

Returns a relative path that is lexically equivalent to self when joined to base with an intervening separator.

The returned path is in normalized form.

That means with normalized paths base.join(target.relative_to(base)) is equivalent to target.

Returns nil if self cannot be expressed as relative to base or if knowing the current working directory would be necessary to resolve it. The latter can be avoided by expanding the paths first.

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#relative_to?(base : String) : Path?

Returns a relative path that is lexically equivalent to self when joined to base with an intervening separator.

The returned path is in normalized form.

That means with normalized paths base.join(target.relative_to(base)) is equivalent to target.

Returns nil if self cannot be expressed as relative to base or if knowing the current working directory would be necessary to resolve it. The latter can be avoided by expanding the paths first.

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#root : Path?

Returns the root path component of this path or nil if it is not rooted.

See #anchor for the combination of #drive and root.

Path["/etc/"].root                           # => Path["/"]
Path.windows("C:Program Files").root         # => nil
Path.windows("C:\\Program Files").root       # => Path.windows("\\")
Path.windows("\\\\host\\share\\folder").root # => Path.windows("\\")

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#sibling(name : Path | String) : Path

Resolves path name in this path's parent directory.

Raises Path::Error if #parent is nil.

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#stem

Returns the last component of this path without the extension.

This is equivalent to self.basename(self.extension).

Path["file.cr"].stem     # => "file"
Path["file.tar.gz"].stem # => "file.tar"
Path["foo/file.cr"].stem # => "file"

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#to_json(json : JSON::Builder)

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#to_json_object_key : String

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#to_kind(kind)

Converts this path to the given kind.

See #to_windows and #to_posix for details.

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#to_native : Path

Converts this path to a native path.

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#to_posix : Path

Converts this path to a POSIX path.

Path.windows("foo/bar\\baz").to_posix # => Path.posix("foo/bar/baz")
Path.posix("foo/bar").to_posix        # => Path.posix("foo/bar")
Path.posix("foo/bar\\baz").to_posix   # => Path.posix("foo/bar\\baz")

It returns a copy of this instance if it already has POSIX kind. Otherwise a new instance is created with Kind::POSIX and all occurrences of backslash file separators (\\) replaced by forward slash (/).

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#to_s(io : IO)

Appends the string representation of this path to io.

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#to_s : String

Returns the string representation of this path.

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#to_uri : URI

Returns a new URI with file scheme from this path.

A URI can only be created with an absolute path. Raises Path::Error if this path is not absolute.

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#to_windows : Path

Converts this path to a Windows path.

Path.posix("foo/bar").to_windows   # => Path.windows("foo/bar")
Path.windows("foo/bar").to_windows # => Path.windows("foo/bar")

This creates a new instance with the same string representation but with Kind::WINDOWS.

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#to_yaml(yaml : YAML::Nodes::Builder)

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#windows? : Bool

Returns true if this is a Windows path.

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