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file(n)                      Tcl Built-In Commands                     file(n)



______________________________________________________________________________


NAME

       file - Manipulate file names and attributes


SYNOPSIS

       file option name ?arg arg ...?
______________________________________________________________________________


DESCRIPTION

       This   command   provides  several  operations  on  a  file's  name  or
       attributes.  Name is the name of a file; if it  starts  with  a  tilde,
       then  tilde  substitution is done before executing the command (see the
       manual entry for filename for details).  Option indicates  what  to  do
       with  the file name.  Any unique abbreviation for option is acceptable.
       The valid options are:

       file atime name ?time?
              Returns a decimal string giving the time at which file name  was
              last  accessed.   If  time is specified, it is an access time to
              set for the file.  The time is measured in  the  standard  POSIX
              fashion  as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1,
              1970).  If the file does not exist or its access time cannot  be
              queried or set then an error is generated.  On Windows, FAT file
              systems do not support access time.

       file attributes name

       file attributes name ?option?

       file attributes name ?option value option value...?
              This subcommand returns or sets platform specific values associ-
              ated  with a file. The first form returns a list of the platform
              specific flags and their values. The  second  form  returns  the
              value  for  the specific option. The third form sets one or more
              of the values. The values are as follows:

              On Unix, -group gets or sets the group  name  for  the  file.  A
              group  id  can  be  given to the command, but it returns a group
              name. -owner gets or sets the user name  of  the  owner  of  the
              file.  The  command returns the owner name, but the numerical id
              can be passed when  setting  the  owner.  -permissions  sets  or
              retrieves  the octal code that chmod(1) uses.  This command does
              also  has  limited  support  for  setting  using  the   symbolic
              attributes for chmod(1), of the form [ugo]?[[+-=][rwxst],[...]],
              where multiple symbolic attributes can be  separated  by  commas
              (example:  u+s,go-rw  add  sticky  bit for user, remove read and
              write permissions for group and other).  A simplified  ls  style
              string,  of  the  form rwxrwxrwx (must be 9 characters), is also
              supported (example: rwxr-xr-t is equivalent to 01755).  On  ver-
              sions  of  Unix supporting file flags, -readonly gives the value
              or sets or clears the readonly attribute of the file,  i.e.  the
              user immutable flag uchg to chflags(1).

              On  Windows,  -archive gives the value or sets or clears the ar-
              chive attribute of the file. -hidden gives the value or sets  or
              clears  the  hidden attribute of the file. -longname will expand
              each path element to its long version. This attribute cannot  be
              set.  -readonly  gives  the value or sets or clears the readonly
              attribute of the file. -shortname gives  a  string  where  every
              path  element  is  replaced  with its short (8.3) version of the
              name. This attribute cannot be set. -system  gives  or  sets  or
              clears the value of the system attribute of the file.

              On  Mac  OS X and Darwin, -creator gives or sets the Finder cre-
              ator type of the file. -hidden gives or sets or clears the  hid-
              den attribute of the file. -readonly gives or sets or clears the
              readonly attribute of the file. -rsrclength gives the length  of
              the resource fork of the file, this attribute can only be set to
              the value 0, which results in the resource fork  being  stripped
              off the file.

       file channels ?pattern?
              If pattern is not specified, returns a list of names of all reg-
              istered open channels in this interpreter.  If pattern is speci-
              fied,  only those names matching pattern are returned.  Matching
              is determined using the same rules as for string match.

       file copy ?-force? ?--? source target

       file copy ?-force? ?--? source ?source ...? targetDir
              The first form makes a copy of  the  file  or  directory  source
              under  the  pathname target. If target is an existing directory,
              then the second form is used.  The  second  form  makes  a  copy
              inside  targetDir of each source file listed.  If a directory is
              specified as a source, then the contents of the  directory  will
              be recursively copied into targetDir. Existing files will not be
              overwritten unless the -force option is specified (when Tcl will
              also  attempt  to  adjust permissions on the destination file or
              directory if that is necessary to allow the  copy  to  proceed).
              When  copying  within  a  single filesystem, file copy will copy
              soft links (i.e.  the  links  themselves  are  copied,  not  the
              things  they  point to).  Trying to overwrite a non-empty direc-
              tory, overwrite a directory with a file,  or  overwrite  a  file
              with  a  directory  will all result in errors even if -force was
              specified.  Arguments are  processed  in  the  order  specified,
              halting  at  the  first  error,  if  any.  A -- marks the end of
              switches; the argument following the -- will  be  treated  as  a
              source even if it starts with a -.

       file delete ?-force? ?--? ?pathname ... ?
              Removes  the  file or directory specified by each pathname argu-
              ment.  Non-empty directories will be removed only if the  -force
              option  is  specified.   When  operating  on symbolic links, the
              links themselves will be deleted, not the objects they point to.
              Trying to delete a non-existent file is not considered an error.
              Trying to delete a read-only file will  cause  the  file  to  be
              deleted,  even  if  the  -force  flags is not specified.  If the
              -force option is specified on a directory, Tcl will attempt both
              to  change  permissions and move the current directory "pwd" out
              of the given path if that is necessary to allow the deletion  to
              proceed.   Arguments are processed in the order specified, halt-
              ing at the first error, if any.  A -- marks the end of switches;
              the argument following the -- will be treated as a pathname even
              if it starts with a -.

       file dirname name
              Returns a name comprised of all of the path components  in  name
              excluding the last element.  If name is a relative file name and
              only contains one path  element,  then  returns  ".".   If  name
              refers to a root directory, then the root directory is returned.
              For example,

                     file dirname c:/

              returns c:/.

              Note that tilde substitution will only be  performed  if  it  is
              necessary to complete the command. For example,

                     file dirname ~/src/foo.c

              returns ~/src, whereas

                     file dirname ~

              returns /home (or something similar).

       file executable name
              Returns 1 if file name is executable by the current user, 0 oth-
              erwise. On Windows, which does not have an executable attribute,
              the command treats all directories and any files with extensions
              exe, com, cmd or bat as executable.

       file exists name
              Returns 1 if file name exists and the current  user  has  search
              privileges for the directories leading to it, 0 otherwise.

       file extension name
              Returns  all  of  the characters in name after and including the
              last dot in the last element of name.  If there is no dot in the
              last element of name then returns the empty string.

       file isdirectory name
              Returns 1 if file name is a directory, 0 otherwise.

       file isfile name
              Returns 1 if file name is a regular file, 0 otherwise.

       file join name ?name ...?
              Takes  one  or more file names and combines them, using the cor-
              rect path separator for the current platform.  If  a  particular
              name  is  relative,  then it will be joined to the previous file
              name argument.  Otherwise, any earlier arguments  will  be  dis-
              carded, and joining will proceed from the current argument.  For
              example,

                     file join a b /foo bar

              returns /foo/bar.

              Note that any of the names can contain separators, and that  the
              result  is always canonical for the current platform: / for Unix
              and Windows.

       file link ?-linktype? linkName ?target?
              If only one argument is given, that argument is  assumed  to  be
              linkName,  and  this command returns the value of the link given
              by linkName (i.e. the name  of  the  file  it  points  to).   If
              linkName  is  not  a  link  or its value cannot be read (as, for
              example, seems to be the case with hard links, which  look  just
              like ordinary files), then an error is returned.

              If  2 arguments are given, then these are assumed to be linkName
              and target. If linkName already exists, or if  target  does  not
              exist,  an error will be returned.  Otherwise, Tcl creates a new
              link called linkName which points  to  the  existing  filesystem
              object  at  target (which is also the returned value), where the
              type of the link is platform-specific (on Unix a  symbolic  link
              will  be  the  default).   This is useful for the case where the
              user wishes to create a link in a cross-platform way,  and  does
              not care what type of link is created.

              If  the user wishes to make a link of a specific type only, (and
              signal an error if for some reason that is not  possible),  then
              the  optional -linktype argument should be given.  Accepted val-
              ues for -linktype are "-symbolic" and "-hard".

              On Unix, symbolic links can be made to relative paths, and those
              paths must be relative to the actual linkName's location (not to
              the cwd), but on all other platforms where  relative  links  are
              not  supported,  target  paths will always be converted to abso-
              lute, normalized form before the link is created (and  therefore
              relative  paths  are  interpreted as relative to the cwd).  Fur-
              thermore, "~user" paths are always expanded  to  absolute  form.
              When  creating  links  on filesystems that either do not support
              any links, or do not support the  specific  type  requested,  an
              error  message  will  be  returned.  Most Unix platforms support
              both symbolic and hard links (the latter for files  only).  Win-
              dows  supports  symbolic  directory links and hard file links on
              NTFS drives.

       file lstat name varName
              Same as stat option (see below) except  uses  the  lstat  kernel
              call  instead of stat.  This means that if name refers to a sym-
              bolic link the information returned in varName is for  the  link
              rather  than the file it refers to.  On systems that do not sup-
              port symbolic links this option behaves exactly the same as  the
              stat option.

       file mkdir ?dir ...?
              Creates  each directory specified.  For each pathname dir speci-
              fied, this command will create all non-existing parent  directo-
              ries  as well as dir itself.  If an existing directory is speci-
              fied, then no action is taken and no error is returned.   Trying
              to overwrite an existing file with a directory will result in an
              error.  Arguments are processed in the order specified,  halting
              at the first error, if any.

       file mtime name ?time?
              Returns  a decimal string giving the time at which file name was
              last modified.  If time is specified, it is a modification  time
              to  set  for  the  file (equivalent to Unix touch).  The time is
              measured in the standard POSIX fashion as seconds from  a  fixed
              starting  time  (often  January  1, 1970).  If the file does not
              exist or its modified time cannot be  queried  or  set  then  an
              error is generated.

       file nativename name
              Returns  the  platform-specific name of the file. This is useful
              if the filename is needed to pass to a  platform-specific  call,
              such  as  to  a  subprocess via exec under Windows (see EXAMPLES
              below).

       file normalize name
              Returns a unique normalized path representation  for  the  file-
              system  object  (file, directory, link, etc), whose string value
              can be used as a unique identifier for it.  A normalized path is
              an  absolute path which has all "../" and "./" removed.  Also it
              is one which is in the "standard" format for  the  native  plat-
              form.   On  Unix, this means the segments leading up to the path
              must be free of symbolic links/aliases (but the very  last  path
              component  may be a symbolic link), and on Windows it also means
              we want the long form with that  form's  case-dependence  (which
              gives us a unique, case-dependent path).  The one exception con-
              cerning the last link in the path is necessary, because  Tcl  or
              the  user may wish to operate on the actual symbolic link itself
              (for example file delete, file rename, file copy are defined  to
              operate  on  symbolic  links,  not on the things that they point
              to).

       file owned name
              Returns 1 if file name is owned by the current  user,  0  other-
              wise.

       file pathtype name
              Returns  one  of  absolute,  relative,  volumerelative.  If name
              refers to a specific file on a specific volume,  the  path  type
              will  be absolute. If name refers to a file relative to the cur-
              rent working directory, then the path type will be relative.  If
              name  refers to a file relative to the current working directory
              on a specified volume, or to a  specific  file  on  the  current
              working volume, then the path type is volumerelative.

       file readable name
              Returns 1 if file name is readable by the current user, 0 other-
              wise.

       file readlink name
              Returns the value of the symbolic link given by name  (i.e.  the
              name  of the file it points to).  If name is not a symbolic link
              or its value cannot be read, then an error is returned.  On sys-
              tems  that  do  not  support symbolic links this option is unde-
              fined.

       file rename ?-force? ?--? source target

       file rename ?-force? ?--? source ?source ...? targetDir
              The first form takes the file or directory specified by pathname
              source and renames it to target, moving the file if the pathname
              target specifies a name in a different directory.  If target  is
              an existing directory, then the second form is used.  The second
              form moves each source file or directory into the directory tar-
              getDir. Existing files will not be overwritten unless the -force
              option is specified.  When operating inside a single filesystem,
              Tcl  will rename symbolic links rather than the things that they
              point to.  Trying to overwrite a non-empty directory,  overwrite
              a  directory  with  a  file, or a file with a directory will all
              result in errors.  Arguments are processed in the  order  speci-
              fied, halting at the first error, if any.  A -- marks the end of
              switches; the argument following the -- will  be  treated  as  a
              source even if it starts with a -.

       file rootname name
              Returns  all  of  the characters in name up to but not including
              the last "."  character in the last component of name.   If  the
              last  component  of  name  does  not contain a dot, then returns
              name.

       file separator ?name?
              If no argument is given, returns the character which is used  to
              separate  path segments for native files on this platform.  If a
              path is given, the filesystem responsible for that path is asked
              to  return  its  separator character.  If no file system accepts
              name, an error is generated.

       file size name
              Returns a decimal string giving the size of file name in  bytes.
              If the file does not exist or its size cannot be queried then an
              error is generated.

       file split name
              Returns a list whose elements are the path components  in  name.
              The  first  element  of the list will have the same path type as
              name.  All other elements will  be  relative.   Path  separators
              will  be discarded unless they are needed to ensure that an ele-
              ment is unambiguously relative.  For example, under Unix

                     file split /foo/~bar/baz

              returns "/  foo  ./~bar  baz" to ensure that later commands that
              use  the third component do not attempt to perform tilde substi-
              tution.

       file stat  name varName
              Invokes the stat kernel call on  name,  and  uses  the  variable
              given  by  varName  to hold information returned from the kernel
              call.  VarName is treated as an array variable, and the  follow-
              ing  elements  of that variable are set: atime, ctime, dev, gid,
              ino, mode, mtime, nlink, size, type, uid.  Each  element  except
              type  is  a  decimal  string with the value of the corresponding
              field from the stat return structure; see the manual  entry  for
              stat  for  details on the meanings of the values.  The type ele-
              ment gives the type of the file in the same form returned by the
              command file type.  This command returns an empty string.

       file system name
              Returns a list of one or two elements, the first of which is the
              name of the filesystem to use for the file, and the  second,  if
              given,  an arbitrary string representing the filesystem-specific
              nature or type of the location within  that  filesystem.   If  a
              filesystem  only  supports  one type of file, the second element
              may not be supplied.  For example the native files have a  first
              element  "native",  and  a  second element which when given is a
              platform-specific type name for the file's system (e.g.  "NTFS",
              "FAT",  on Windows).  A generic virtual file system might return
              the list "vfs ftp" to represent a file  on  a  remote  ftp  site
              mounted  as  a  virtual  filesystem  through an extension called
              "vfs".  If the file does not belong to any filesystem, an  error
              is generated.

       file tail name
              Returns  all  of the characters in the last filesystem component
              of name.  Any trailing directory separator in name  is  ignored.
              If name contains no separators then returns name.  So, file tail
              a/b, file tail a/b/ and file tail b all return b.

       file tempfile ?nameVar? ?template?
              Creates a temporary file and returns a read-write channel opened |
              on  that file.  If the nameVar is given, it specifies a variable |
              that the name of the temporary file will  be  written  into;  if |
              absent, Tcl will attempt to arrange for the temporary file to be |
              deleted once it is  no  longer  required.  If  the  template  is |
              present,  it  specifies parts of the template of the filename to |
              use when creating it (such as the directory, base-name or exten- |
              sion)  though  some  platforms  may  ignore some or all of these |
              parts and use a built-in default instead.                        |

              Note that temporary files are only ever created  on  the  native |
              filesystem.  As  such,  they  can be relied upon to be used with |
              operating-system native APIs and external programs that  require |
              a filename.                                                      |

       file type name
              Returns a string giving the type of file name, which will be one
              of file, directory, characterSpecial, blockSpecial, fifo,  link,
              or socket.

       file volumes
              Returns the absolute paths to the volumes mounted on the system,
              as a proper Tcl list.  Without any virtual  filesystems  mounted
              as  root  volumes,  on UNIX, the command will always return "/",
              since all filesystems are locally mounted.  On Windows, it  will
              return  a  list of the available local drives (e.g.  "a:/ c:/").
              If any virtual filesystem has mounted additional  volumes,  they
              will be in the returned list.

       file writable name
              Returns 1 if file name is writable by the current user, 0 other-
              wise.


PORTABILITY ISSUES

       Unix
              These commands always operate using  the  real  user  and  group
              identifiers, not the effective ones.

       Windows
              The  file owned subcommand uses the user identifier (SID) of the
              process token, not the thread token which may  be  impersonating
              some other user.


EXAMPLES

       This  procedure  shows  how  to search for C files in a given directory
       that have a correspondingly-named object file in the current directory:

              proc findMatchingCFiles {dir} {
                  set files {}
                  switch $::tcl_platform(platform) {
                      windows {
                          set ext .obj
                      }
                      unix {
                         set ext .o
                      }
                  }
                  foreach file [glob -nocomplain -directory $dir *.c] {
                      set objectFile [file tail [file rootname $file]]$ext
                      if {[file exists $objectFile]} {
                          lappend files $file
                      }
                  }
                  return $files
              }

       Rename  a file and leave a symbolic link pointing from the old location
       to the new place:

              set oldName foobar.txt
              set newName foo/bar.txt
              # Make sure that where we're going to move to exists...
              if {![file isdirectory [file dirname $newName]]} {
                  file mkdir [file dirname $newName]
              }
              file rename $oldName $newName
              file link -symbolic $oldName $newName

       On Windows, a file can be "started" easily enough (equivalent  to  dou-
       ble-clicking  on  it  in the Explorer interface) but the name passed to
       the operating system must be in native format:

              exec {*}[auto_execok start] {} [file nativename ~/example.txt]


SEE ALSO

       filename(n), open(n),  close(n),  eof(n),  gets(n),  tell(n),  seek(n),
       fblocked(n), flush(n)


KEYWORDS

       attributes,  copy  files,  delete  files,  directory, file, move files,
       name, rename files, stat, user



Tcl                                   8.3                              file(n)

tcl 8.6.6 - Generated Mon Aug 22 18:16:44 CDT 2016
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