Re: [boost] directory iteration / path manipulation

From: Jason Stewart (res0054p_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-23 16:41:26

I have written this class as well. Actually it was two classes, one for 
filenames and one for pathnames. This was done this was to prevent 
ambiguity when assigning a string to the class.

The syntax of the class that I wrote is like this:

Pathname path = CurrentDirectory();
path  += "tmpdir";
if (!path .Exists())
        MakeDir(path);

Pathname child = "../otherdir";
Pathname absolute = Pathname::MakeAbsolute(child); // uses current directory
        or
Pathname absolute = Pathname::MakeAbsolute(child, path); // uses specified 
directory

absolute.Chop();	// removes the last directory

Filename fname("c:/winnt/system32/drivers/etc/hosts");
Pathname etc = fname.Path();

string dir = etc.Directory();	// just directory part, no drive
string drive = etc.Drive();	// just drive letter (or unc server/share)
string base = fname.Base();	// filename (no path or extension)
string ext = fname.Ext();
fname.Ext(".txt");			// change extension to .txt
fname.Path("c:\tmp");		// Change path

string pathstr = etc.Get();		// converts to a string

That's the basics. I have not compiled this on platforms other than windows 
but I tried to handle other cases when I could. To avoid portability 
problems internally all separators are forward slashes (by default, you can 
change it). Win32 functions all handle forward slashes just as well as 
backslashes. On unix systems the Drive functions don't do anything. There 
is a compile time constant that defines whether comparisons are 
case-sensitive or not.

I also wrote a directory iterator that returns these types but it seems to 
have been obsoleted by dir_it.

If there is interest, I can talk to my boss and see if we can just donate 
the code, its not that much but it has been tested fairly well.