3.35 File System Interaction

access_file(+File, +Mode)

Succeeds if File exists and can be accessed by this prolog process under mode Mode. Mode is one of the atoms read, write, append, exist, none or execute. File may also be the name of a directory. Fails silently otherwise. access_file(File, none) simply succeeds without testing anything.

If `Mode' is write or append, this predicate also succeeds if the file does not exist and the user has write-access to the directory of the specified location.

exists_file(+File)

Succeeds when File exists. This does not imply the user has read and/or write permission for the file.

file_directory_name(+File, -Directory)

Extracts the directory-part of File. The resulting Directory name ends with the directory separator character /. If File is an atom that does not contain any directory separator characters, the empty atom '' is returned. See also file_base_name/2.

file_base_name(+File, -BaseName)

Extracts the filename part from a path specification. If File does not contain any directory separators, File is returned.

same_file(+File1, +File2)

Succeeds if both filenames refer to the same physical file. That is, if File1 and File2 are the same string or both names exist and point to the same file (due to hard or symbolic links and/or relative vs. absolute paths).

exists_directory(+Directory)

Succeeds if Directory exists. This does not imply the user has read, search and or write permission for the directory.

delete_file(+File)

Unlink File from the Unix file system.

rename_file(+File1, +File2)

Rename File1 into File2. Currently files cannot be moved across devices.

size_file(+File, -Size)

Unify Size with the size of File in characters.

time_file(+File, -Time)

Unify the last modification time of File with Time. Time is a floating point number expressing the seconds elapsed since Jan 1, 1970.

absolute_file_name(+File, -Absolute)

Expand Unix file specification into an absolute path. User home directory expansion (~ and  <user>) and variable expansion is done. The absolute path is canonised: references to . and .. are deleted. SWI-Prolog uses absolute file names to register source files independent of the current working directory. See also absolute_file_name/3.

absolute_file_name(+Spec, +Options, -Absolute)

Converts the given file specification into an absolute path. Option is a list of options to guide the conversion:

extensions(ListOfExtensions)

List of file-extensions to try. Default is ''. For each extension, absolute_file_name/3 will first add the extension and then verify the conditions imposed by the other options. If the condition fails, the next extension of the list is tried. Extensions may be specified both as ..ext or plain ext.

access(Mode)

Imposes the condition access_file(File, Mode). Mode is on of read, write, append, exist or none. See also access_file/2.

file_type(Type)

Defines extensions. Current mapping: txt implies [''], prolog implies ['.pl', ''], executable implies ['.so', ''], qlf implies ['.qlf', ''] and directory implies [''].

file_errors(fail/error)

If error (default), throw and existence_error exception if the file cannot be found. If fail, stay silent. footnote Silent operation was the default upto version 3.2.6.

solutions(first/all)

If first (default), the predicates leaves no choice-point. Otherwise a choice-point will be left and backtracking may yield more solutions.

is_absolute_file_name(+File)

True if File specifies and absolute path-name. On Unix systems, this implies the path starts with a `/'. For Microsoft based systems this implies the path starts with <letter>:. This predicate is intended to provide platform-independent checking for absolute paths. See also absolute_file_name/2 and prolog_to_os_filename/2.

file_name_extension(?Base, ?Extension, ?Name)

This predicate is used to add, remove or test filename extensions. The main reason for its introduction is to deal with different filename properties in a portable manner. If the file system is case-insensitive, testing for an extension will be done case-insensitive too. Extension may be specified with or without a leading dot (.). If an Extension is generated, it will not have a leading dot.

expand_file_name(+WildCard, -List)

Unify List with a sorted list of files or directories matching WildCard. The normal Unix wildcard constructs `?', `*', `[ ... ]' and `{...}' are recognised. The interpretation of `{...}' is interpreted slightly different from the C shell (csh(1)). The comma separated argument can be arbitrary patterns, including `{...}' patterns. The empty pattern is legal as well: `\{.pl,\}' matches either `.pl' or the empty string.

Before expanding wildchards, the construct $var is expanded to the value of the environment variable var and a possible leading ~ character is expanded to the user's home directory. (15).

prolog_to_os_filename(?PrologPath, ?OsPath)

Converts between the internal Prolog pathname conventions and the operating-system pathname conventions. The internal conventions are Unix and this predicates is equivalent to =/2 (unify) on Unix systems. On DOS systems it will change the directory-separator, limit the filename length map dots, except for the last one, onto underscores.

read_link(+File, -Link, -Target)

If File points to a symbolic link, unify Link with the value of the link and Target to the file the link is pointing to. Target points to a file, directory or non-existing entry in the file system, but never to a link. Fails if File is not a link. Fails always on systems that do not support symbolic links.

tmp_file(+Base, -TmpName)

Create a name for a temporary file. Base is an identifier for the category of file. The TmpName is guaranteed to be unique. If the system halts, it will automatically remove all created temporary files.

chdir(+Path)

Change working directory to Path. (16)