File Utilities

File Utilities — various file-related functions

Synopsis

#include <glib.h>
#include <glib/gstdio.h>

enum                GFileError;
#define             G_FILE_ERROR
enum                GFileTest;
GFileError          g_file_error_from_errno             (gint err_no);
#define             g_file_get_contents
gboolean            g_file_set_contents                 (const gchar *filename,
                                                         const gchar *contents,
                                                         gssize length,
                                                         GError **error);
#define             g_file_test
#define             g_mkstemp
#define             g_file_open_tmp
gchar *             g_file_read_link                    (const gchar *filename,
                                                         GError **error);
int                 g_mkdir_with_parents                (const gchar *pathname,
                                                         int mode);

                    GDir;
#define             g_dir_open
#define             g_dir_read_name
void                g_dir_rewind                        (GDir *dir);
void                g_dir_close                         (GDir *dir);

                    GMappedFile;
GMappedFile *       g_mapped_file_new                   (const gchar *filename,
                                                         gboolean writable,
                                                         GError **error);
void                g_mapped_file_free                  (GMappedFile *file);
gsize               g_mapped_file_get_length            (GMappedFile *file);
gchar *             g_mapped_file_get_contents          (GMappedFile *file);

#define             g_open
#define             g_rename
#define             g_mkdir
#define             g_stat
#define             g_lstat
int                 g_unlink                            (const gchar *filename);
#define             g_remove
int                 g_rmdir                             (const gchar *filename);
#define             g_fopen
#define             g_freopen
#define             g_chmod
int                 g_access                            (const gchar *filename,
                                                         int mode);
#define             g_creat
int                 g_chdir                             (const gchar *path);
#define             g_utime

Description

There is a group of functions which wrap the common POSIX functions dealing with filenames (g_open(), g_rename(), g_mkdir(), g_stat(), g_unlink(), g_remove(), g_fopen(), g_freopen()). The point of these wrappers is to make it possible to handle file names with any Unicode characters in them on Windows without having to use ifdefs and the wide character API in the application code.

The pathname argument should be in the GLib file name encoding. On POSIX this is the actual on-disk encoding which might correspond to the locale settings of the process (or the G_FILENAME_ENCODING environment variable), or not.

On Windows the GLib file name encoding is UTF-8. Note that the Microsoft C library does not use UTF-8, but has separate APIs for current system code page and wide characters (UTF-16). The GLib wrappers call the wide character API if present (on modern Windows systems), otherwise convert to/from the system code page.

Another group of functions allows to open and read directories in the GLib file name encoding. These are g_dir_open(), g_dir_read_name(), g_dir_rewind(), g_dir_close().

Details

enum GFileError

typedef enum {
  G_FILE_ERROR_EXIST,
  G_FILE_ERROR_ISDIR,
  G_FILE_ERROR_ACCES,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NAMETOOLONG,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NOENT,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NOTDIR,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NXIO,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NODEV,
  G_FILE_ERROR_ROFS,
  G_FILE_ERROR_TXTBSY,
  G_FILE_ERROR_FAULT,
  G_FILE_ERROR_LOOP,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NOSPC,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NOMEM,
  G_FILE_ERROR_MFILE,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NFILE,
  G_FILE_ERROR_BADF,
  G_FILE_ERROR_INVAL,
  G_FILE_ERROR_PIPE,
  G_FILE_ERROR_AGAIN,
  G_FILE_ERROR_INTR,
  G_FILE_ERROR_IO,
  G_FILE_ERROR_PERM,
  G_FILE_ERROR_NOSYS,
  G_FILE_ERROR_FAILED
} GFileError;

Values corresponding to errno codes returned from file operations on UNIX. Unlike errno codes, GFileError values are available on all systems, even Windows. The exact meaning of each code depends on what sort of file operation you were performing; the UNIX documentation gives more details. The following error code descriptions come from the GNU C Library manual, and are under the copyright of that manual.

It's not very portable to make detailed assumptions about exactly which errors will be returned from a given operation. Some errors don't occur on some systems, etc., sometimes there are subtle differences in when a system will report a given error, etc.

G_FILE_ERROR_EXIST

Operation not permitted; only the owner of the file (or other resource) or processes with special privileges can perform the operation.

G_FILE_ERROR_ISDIR

File is a directory; you cannot open a directory for writing, or create or remove hard links to it.

G_FILE_ERROR_ACCES

Permission denied; the file permissions do not allow the attempted operation.

G_FILE_ERROR_NAMETOOLONG

Filename too long.

G_FILE_ERROR_NOENT

No such file or directory. This is a "file doesn't exist" error for ordinary files that are referenced in contexts where they are expected to already exist.

G_FILE_ERROR_NOTDIR

A file that isn't a directory was specified when a directory is required.

G_FILE_ERROR_NXIO

No such device or address. The system tried to use the device represented by a file you specified, and it couldn't find the device. This can mean that the device file was installed incorrectly, or that the physical device is missing or not correctly attached to the computer.

G_FILE_ERROR_NODEV

This file is of a type that doesn't support mapping.

G_FILE_ERROR_ROFS

The directory containing the new link can't be modified because it's on a read-only file system.

G_FILE_ERROR_TXTBSY

Text file busy.

G_FILE_ERROR_FAULT

You passed in a pointer to bad memory. (GLib won't reliably return this, don't pass in pointers to bad memory.)

G_FILE_ERROR_LOOP

Too many levels of symbolic links were encountered in looking up a file name. This often indicates a cycle of symbolic links.

G_FILE_ERROR_NOSPC

No space left on device; write operation on a file failed because the disk is full.

G_FILE_ERROR_NOMEM

No memory available. The system cannot allocate more virtual memory because its capacity is full.

G_FILE_ERROR_MFILE

The current process has too many files open and can't open any more. Duplicate descriptors do count toward this limit.

G_FILE_ERROR_NFILE

There are too many distinct file openings in the entire system.

G_FILE_ERROR_BADF

Bad file descriptor; for example, I/O on a descriptor that has been closed or reading from a descriptor open only for writing (or vice versa).

G_FILE_ERROR_INVAL

Invalid argument. This is used to indicate various kinds of problems with passing the wrong argument to a library function.

G_FILE_ERROR_PIPE

Broken pipe; there is no process reading from the other end of a pipe. Every library function that returns this error code also generates a `SIGPIPE' signal; this signal terminates the program if not handled or blocked. Thus, your program will never actually see this code unless it has handled or blocked `SIGPIPE'.

G_FILE_ERROR_AGAIN

Resource temporarily unavailable; the call might work if you try again later.

G_FILE_ERROR_INTR

Interrupted function call; an asynchronous signal occurred and prevented completion of the call. When this happens, you should try the call again.

G_FILE_ERROR_IO

Input/output error; usually used for physical read or write errors. i.e. the disk or other physical device hardware is returning errors.

G_FILE_ERROR_PERM

Operation not permitted; only the owner of the file (or other resource) or processes with special privileges can perform the operation.

G_FILE_ERROR_NOSYS

Function not implemented; this indicates that the system is missing some functionality.

G_FILE_ERROR_FAILED

Does not correspond to a UNIX error code; this is the standard "failed for unspecified reason" error code present in all GError error code enumerations. Returned if no specific code applies.

G_FILE_ERROR

#define G_FILE_ERROR g_file_error_quark ()

Error domain for file operations. Errors in this domain will be from the GFileError enumeration. See GError for information on error domains.


enum GFileTest

typedef enum {
  G_FILE_TEST_IS_REGULAR    = 1 << 0,
  G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK    = 1 << 1,
  G_FILE_TEST_IS_DIR        = 1 << 2,
  G_FILE_TEST_IS_EXECUTABLE = 1 << 3,
  G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS        = 1 << 4
} GFileTest;

A test to perform on a file using g_file_test().

G_FILE_TEST_IS_REGULAR

TRUE if the file is a regular file (not a directory). Note that this test will also return TRUE if the tested file is a symlink to a regular file.

G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK

TRUE if the file is a symlink.

G_FILE_TEST_IS_DIR

TRUE if the file is a directory.

G_FILE_TEST_IS_EXECUTABLE

TRUE if the file is executable.

G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS

TRUE if the file exists. It may or may not be a regular file.

g_file_error_from_errno ()

GFileError          g_file_error_from_errno             (gint err_no);

Gets a GFileError constant based on the passed-in errno. For example, if you pass in EEXIST this function returns G_FILE_ERROR_EXIST. Unlike errno values, you can portably assume that all GFileError values will exist.

Normally a GFileError value goes into a GError returned from a function that manipulates files. So you would use g_file_error_from_errno() when constructing a GError.

err_no :

an "errno" value

Returns :

GFileError corresponding to the given errno

g_file_get_contents

#define             g_file_get_contents

Reads an entire file into allocated memory, with good error checking.

If the call was successful, it returns TRUE and sets contents to the file contents and length to the length of the file contents in bytes. The string stored in contents will be nul-terminated, so for text files you can pass NULL for the length argument. If the call was not successful, it returns FALSE and sets error. The error domain is G_FILE_ERROR. Possible error codes are those in the GFileError enumeration. In the error case, contents is set to NULL and length is set to zero.

Returns :

TRUE on success, FALSE if an error occurred

g_file_set_contents ()

gboolean            g_file_set_contents                 (const gchar *filename,
                                                         const gchar *contents,
                                                         gssize length,
                                                         GError **error);

Writes all of contents to a file named filename, with good error checking. If a file called filename already exists it will be overwritten.

This write is atomic in the sense that it is first written to a temporary file which is then renamed to the final name. Notes:

  • On Unix, if filename already exists hard links to filename will break. Also since the file is recreated, existing permissions, access control lists, metadata etc. may be lost. If filename is a symbolic link, the link itself will be replaced, not the linked file.
  • On Windows renaming a file will not remove an existing file with the new name, so on Windows there is a race condition between the existing file being removed and the temporary file being renamed.
  • On Windows there is no way to remove a file that is open to some process, or mapped into memory. Thus, this function will fail if filename already exists and is open.

If the call was sucessful, it returns TRUE. If the call was not successful, it returns FALSE and sets error. The error domain is G_FILE_ERROR. Possible error codes are those in the GFileError enumeration.

filename :

name of a file to write contents to, in the GLib file name encoding

contents :

string to write to the file

length :

length of contents, or -1 if contents is a nul-terminated string

error :

return location for a GError, or NULL

Returns :

TRUE on success, FALSE if an error occurred

Since 2.8


g_file_test

#define             g_file_test

Returns TRUE if any of the tests in the bitfield test are TRUE. For example, (G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS | G_FILE_TEST_IS_DIR) will return TRUE if the file exists; the check whether it's a directory doesn't matter since the existence test is TRUE. With the current set of available tests, there's no point passing in more than one test at a time.

Apart from G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK all tests follow symbolic links, so for a symbolic link to a regular file g_file_test() will return TRUE for both G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK and G_FILE_TEST_IS_REGULAR.

Note, that for a dangling symbolic link g_file_test() will return TRUE for G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK and FALSE for all other flags.

You should never use g_file_test() to test whether it is safe to perform an operation, because there is always the possibility of the condition changing before you actually perform the operation. For example, you might think you could use G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK to know whether it is safe to write to a file without being tricked into writing into a different location. It doesn't work!

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/* DON'T DO THIS */
 if (!g_file_test (filename, G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK)) 
   {
     fd = g_open (filename, O_WRONLY);
     /* write to fd */
   }

Another thing to note is that G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS and G_FILE_TEST_IS_EXECUTABLE are implemented using the access() system call. This usually doesn't matter, but if your program is setuid or setgid it means that these tests will give you the answer for the real user ID and group ID, rather than the effective user ID and group ID.

On Windows, there are no symlinks, so testing for G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK will always return FALSE. Testing for G_FILE_TEST_IS_EXECUTABLE will just check that the file exists and its name indicates that it is executable, checking for well-known extensions and those listed in the PATHEXT environment variable.

Returns :

whether a test was TRUE

g_mkstemp

#define             g_mkstemp

Opens a temporary file. See the mkstemp() documentation on most UNIX-like systems.

The parameter is a string that should follow the rules for mkstemp() templates, i.e. contain the string "XXXXXX". g_mkstemp() is slightly more flexible than mkstemp() in that the sequence does not have to occur at the very end of the template. The X string will be modified to form the name of a file that didn't exist. The string should be in the GLib file name encoding. Most importantly, on Windows it should be in UTF-8.

Returns :

A file handle (as from open()) to the file opened for reading and writing. The file is opened in binary mode on platforms where there is a difference. The file handle should be closed with close(). In case of errors, -1 is returned.

g_file_open_tmp

#define             g_file_open_tmp

Opens a file for writing in the preferred directory for temporary files (as returned by g_get_tmp_dir()).

tmpl should be a string in the GLib file name encoding containing a sequence of six 'X' characters, as the parameter to g_mkstemp(). However, unlike these functions, the template should only be a basename, no directory components are allowed. If template is NULL, a default template is used.

Note that in contrast to g_mkstemp() (and mkstemp()) tmpl is not modified, and might thus be a read-only literal string.

The actual name used is returned in name_used if non-NULL. This string should be freed with g_free() when not needed any longer. The returned name is in the GLib file name encoding.

Returns :

A file handle (as from open()) to the file opened for reading and writing. The file is opened in binary mode on platforms where there is a difference. The file handle should be closed with close(). In case of errors, -1 is returned and error will be set.

g_file_read_link ()

gchar *             g_file_read_link                    (const gchar *filename,
                                                         GError **error);

Reads the contents of the symbolic link filename like the POSIX readlink() function. The returned string is in the encoding used for filenames. Use g_filename_to_utf8() to convert it to UTF-8.

filename :

the symbolic link

error :

return location for a GError

Returns :

A newly-allocated string with the contents of the symbolic link, or NULL if an error occurred.

Since 2.4


g_mkdir_with_parents ()

int                 g_mkdir_with_parents                (const gchar *pathname,
                                                         int mode);

Create a directory if it doesn't already exist. Create intermediate parent directories as needed, too.

pathname :

a pathname in the GLib file name encoding

mode :

permissions to use for newly created directories

Returns :

0 if the directory already exists, or was successfully created. Returns -1 if an error occurred, with errno set.

Since 2.8


GDir

typedef struct _GDir GDir;

An opaque structure representing an opened directory.


g_dir_open

#define             g_dir_open

Opens a directory for reading. The names of the files in the directory can then be retrieved using g_dir_read_name().

Returns :

a newly allocated GDir on success, NULL on failure. If non-NULL, you must free the result with g_dir_close() when you are finished with it.

g_dir_read_name

#define             g_dir_read_name

Retrieves the name of the next entry in the directory. The '.' and '..' entries are omitted. On Windows, the returned name is in UTF-8. On Unix, it is in the on-disk encoding.

Returns :

The entry's name or NULL if there are no more entries. The return value is owned by GLib and must not be modified or freed.

g_dir_rewind ()

void                g_dir_rewind                        (GDir *dir);

Resets the given directory. The next call to g_dir_read_name() will return the first entry again.

dir :

a GDir* created by g_dir_open()

g_dir_close ()

void                g_dir_close                         (GDir *dir);

Closes the directory and deallocates all related resources.

dir :

a GDir* created by g_dir_open()

GMappedFile

typedef struct _GMappedFile GMappedFile;

The GMappedFile represents a file mapping created with g_mapped_file_new(). It has only private members and should not be accessed directly.


g_mapped_file_new ()

GMappedFile *       g_mapped_file_new                   (const gchar *filename,
                                                         gboolean writable,
                                                         GError **error);

Maps a file into memory. On UNIX, this is using the mmap() function.

If writable is TRUE, the mapped buffer may be modified, otherwise it is an error to modify the mapped buffer. Modifications to the buffer are not visible to other processes mapping the same file, and are not written back to the file.

Note that modifications of the underlying file might affect the contents of the GMappedFile. Therefore, mapping should only be used if the file will not be modified, or if all modifications of the file are done atomically (e.g. using g_file_set_contents()).

filename :

The path of the file to load, in the GLib filename encoding

writable :

whether the mapping should be writable

error :

return location for a GError, or NULL

Returns :

a newly allocated GMappedFile which must be freed with g_mapped_file_free(), or NULL if the mapping failed.

Since 2.8


g_mapped_file_free ()

void                g_mapped_file_free                  (GMappedFile *file);

Unmaps the buffer of file and frees it.

file :

a GMappedFile

Since 2.8


g_mapped_file_get_length ()

gsize               g_mapped_file_get_length            (GMappedFile *file);

Returns the length of the contents of a GMappedFile.

file :

a GMappedFile

Returns :

the length of the contents of file.

Since 2.8


g_mapped_file_get_contents ()

gchar *             g_mapped_file_get_contents          (GMappedFile *file);

Returns the contents of a GMappedFile.

Note that the contents may not be zero-terminated, even if the GMappedFile is backed by a text file.

file :

a GMappedFile

Returns :

the contents of file.

Since 2.8


g_open

#define             g_open

A wrapper for the POSIX open() function. The open() function is used to convert a pathname into a file descriptor.

On POSIX systems file descriptors are implemented by the operating system. On Windows, it's the C library that implements open() and file descriptors. The actual Win32 API for opening files is quite different, see MSDN documentation for CreateFile(). The Win32 API uses file handles, which are more randomish integers, not small integers like file descriptors.

Because file descriptors are specific to the C library on Windows, the file descriptor returned by this function makes sense only to functions in the same C library. Thus if the GLib-using code uses a different C library than GLib does, the file descriptor returned by this function cannot be passed to C library functions like write() or read().

See your C library manual for more details about open().

Returns :

a new file descriptor, or -1 if an error occurred. The return value can be used exactly like the return value from open().

Since 2.6


g_rename

#define             g_rename

A wrapper for the POSIX rename() function. The rename() function renames a file, moving it between directories if required.

See your C library manual for more details about how rename() works on your system. It is not possible in general on Windows to rename a file that is open to some process.

Returns :

0 if the renaming succeeded, -1 if an error occurred

Since 2.6


g_mkdir

#define             g_mkdir

A wrapper for the POSIX mkdir() function. The mkdir() function attempts to create a directory with the given name and permissions. The mode argument is ignored on Windows.

See your C library manual for more details about mkdir().

Returns :

0 if the directory was successfully created, -1 if an error occurred

Since 2.6


g_stat

#define             g_stat

A wrapper for the POSIX stat() function. The stat() function returns information about a file. On Windows the stat() function in the C library checks only the FAT-style READONLY attribute and does not look at the ACL at all. Thus on Windows the protection bits in the st_mode field are a fabrication of little use.

See your C library manual for more details about stat().

Returns :

0 if the information was successfully retrieved, -1 if an error occurred

Since 2.6


g_lstat

#define             g_lstat

A wrapper for the POSIX lstat() function. The lstat() function is like stat() except that in the case of symbolic links, it returns information about the symbolic link itself and not the file that it refers to. If the system does not support symbolic links g_lstat() is identical to g_stat().

See your C library manual for more details about lstat().

Returns :

0 if the information was successfully retrieved, -1 if an error occurred

Since 2.6


g_unlink ()

int                 g_unlink                            (const gchar *filename);

A wrapper for the POSIX unlink() function. The unlink() function deletes a name from the filesystem. If this was the last link to the file and no processes have it opened, the diskspace occupied by the file is freed.

See your C library manual for more details about unlink(). Note that on Windows, it is in general not possible to delete files that are open to some process, or mapped into memory.

filename :

a pathname in the GLib file name encoding (UTF-8 on Windows)

Returns :

0 if the name was successfully deleted, -1 if an error occurred

Since 2.6


g_remove

#define             g_remove

A wrapper for the POSIX remove() function. The remove() function deletes a name from the filesystem.

See your C library manual for more details about how remove() works on your system. On Unix, remove() removes also directories, as it calls unlink() for files and rmdir() for directories. On Windows, although remove() in the C library only works for files, this function tries first remove() and then if that fails rmdir(), and thus works for both files and directories. Note however, that on Windows, it is in general not possible to remove a file that is open to some process, or mapped into memory.

If this function fails on Windows you can't infer too much from the errno value. rmdir() is tried regardless of what caused remove() to fail. Any errno value set by remove() will be overwritten by that set by rmdir().

Returns :

0 if the file was successfully removed, -1 if an error occurred

Since 2.6


g_rmdir ()

int                 g_rmdir                             (const gchar *filename);

A wrapper for the POSIX rmdir() function. The rmdir() function deletes a directory from the filesystem.

See your C library manual for more details about how rmdir() works on your system.

filename :

a pathname in the GLib file name encoding (UTF-8 on Windows)

Returns :

0 if the directory was successfully removed, -1 if an error occurred

Since 2.6


g_fopen

#define             g_fopen

A wrapper for the stdio fopen() function. The fopen() function opens a file and associates a new stream with it.

Because file descriptors are specific to the C library on Windows, and a file descriptor is partof the FILE struct, the FILE pointer returned by this function makes sense only to functions in the same C library. Thus if the GLib-using code uses a different C library than GLib does, the FILE pointer returned by this function cannot be passed to C library functions like fprintf() or fread().

See your C library manual for more details about fopen().

Returns :

A FILE pointer if the file was successfully opened, or NULL if an error occurred

Since 2.6


g_freopen

#define             g_freopen

A wrapper for the POSIX freopen() function. The freopen() function opens a file and associates it with an existing stream.

See your C library manual for more details about freopen().

Returns :

A FILE pointer if the file was successfully opened, or NULL if an error occurred.

Since 2.6


g_chmod

#define             g_chmod

A wrapper for the POSIX chmod() function. The chmod() function is used to set the permissions of a file system object.

On Windows the file protection mechanism is not at all POSIX-like, and the underlying chmod() function in the C library just sets or clears the FAT-style READONLY attribute. It does not touch any ACL. Software that needs to manage file permissions on Windows exactly should use the Win32 API.

See your C library manual for more details about chmod().

Returns :

zero if the operation succeeded, -1 on error.

Since 2.8


g_access ()

int                 g_access                            (const gchar *filename,
                                                         int mode);

A wrapper for the POSIX access() function. This function is used to test a pathname for one or several of read, write or execute permissions, or just existence.

On Windows, the file protection mechanism is not at all POSIX-like, and the underlying function in the C library only checks the FAT-style READONLY attribute, and does not look at the ACL of a file at all. This function is this in practise almost useless on Windows. Software that needs to handle file permissions on Windows more exactly should use the Win32 API.

See your C library manual for more details about access().

filename :

a pathname in the GLib file name encoding (UTF-8 on Windows)

mode :

as in access()

Returns :

zero if the pathname refers to an existing file system object that has all the tested permissions, or -1 otherwise or on error.

Since 2.8


g_creat

#define             g_creat

A wrapper for the POSIX creat() function. The creat() function is used to convert a pathname into a file descriptor, creating a file if necessary.

On POSIX systems file descriptors are implemented by the operating system. On Windows, it's the C library that implements creat() and file descriptors. The actual Windows API for opening files is different, see MSDN documentation for CreateFile(). The Win32 API uses file handles, which are more randomish integers, not small integers like file descriptors.

Because file descriptors are specific to the C library on Windows, the file descriptor returned by this function makes sense only to functions in the same C library. Thus if the GLib-using code uses a different C library than GLib does, the file descriptor returned by this function cannot be passed to C library functions like write() or read().

See your C library manual for more details about creat().

Returns :

a new file descriptor, or -1 if an error occurred. The return value can be used exactly like the return value from creat().

Since 2.8


g_chdir ()

int                 g_chdir                             (const gchar *path);

A wrapper for the POSIX chdir() function. The function changes the current directory of the process to path.

See your C library manual for more details about chdir().

path :

a pathname in the GLib file name encoding (UTF-8 on Windows)

Returns :

0 on success, -1 if an error occurred.

Since 2.8


g_utime

#define             g_utime

A wrapper for the POSIX utime() function. The utime() function sets the access and modification timestamps of a file.

See your C library manual for more details about how utime() works on your system.

Returns :

0 if the operation was successful, -1 if an error occurred

Since 2.18