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```{index} single: File::Spec
```

# File::Spec

portably perform operations on file names

## SYNOPSIS

```perl
use File::Spec;

my $x = File::Spec->catfile('a', 'b', 'c');
```

which returns 'a/b/c' under Unix. Or:

```perl
use File::Spec::Functions;

my $x = catfile('a', 'b', 'c');
```

## DESCRIPTION

This module is designed to support operations commonly performed on file
specifications (usually called "file names", but not to be confused with the
contents of a file, or Perl's file handles), such as concatenating several
directory and file names into a single path, or determining whether a path
is rooted. It is based on code directly taken from MakeMaker 5.17, code
written by Andreas König, Andy Dougherty, Charles Bailey, Ilya
Zakharevich, Paul Schinder, and others.

Since these functions are different for most operating systems, each set of
OS specific routines is available in a separate module, including:

```text
File::Spec::Unix
File::Spec::Mac
File::Spec::OS2
File::Spec::Win32
File::Spec::VMS
```

The module appropriate for the current OS is automatically loaded by
File::Spec. Since some modules (like VMS) make use of facilities available
only under that OS, it may not be possible to load all modules under all
operating systems.

Since File::Spec is object oriented, subroutines should not be called directly,
as in:

```perl
File::Spec::catfile('a','b');
```

but rather as class methods:

```perl
File::Spec->catfile('a','b');
```

For simple uses, [File::Spec::Functions](Spec/Functions.md) provides convenient functional
forms of these methods.

## METHODS

- canonpath

    No physical check on the filesystem, but a logical cleanup of a
    path.

    ```perl
    $cpath = File::Spec->canonpath( $path ) ;
    ```

    Note that this does \*not\* collapse `x/../y` sections into `y`.  This
    is by design.  If `/foo` on your system is a symlink to `/bar/baz`,
    then `/foo/../quux` is actually `/bar/quux`, not `/quux` as a naive
    `../`-removal would give you.  If you want to do this kind of
    processing, you probably want `Cwd`'s `realpath()` function to
    actually traverse the filesystem cleaning up paths like this.

- catdir

    Concatenate two or more directory names to form a complete path ending
    with a directory. But remove the trailing slash from the resulting
    string, because it doesn't look good, isn't necessary and confuses
    OS/2. Of course, if this is the root directory, don't cut off the
    trailing slash :-)

    ```perl
    $path = File::Spec->catdir( @directories );
    ```

- catfile

    Concatenate one or more directory names and a filename to form a
    complete path ending with a filename

    ```perl
    $path = File::Spec->catfile( @directories, $filename );
    ```

- curdir

    Returns a string representation of the current directory.

    ```perl
    $curdir = File::Spec->curdir();
    ```

- devnull

    Returns a string representation of the null device.

    ```perl
    $devnull = File::Spec->devnull();
    ```

- rootdir

    Returns a string representation of the root directory.

    ```perl
    $rootdir = File::Spec->rootdir();
    ```

- tmpdir

    Returns a string representation of the first writable directory from a
    list of possible temporary directories.  Returns the current directory
    if no writable temporary directories are found.  The list of directories
    checked depends on the platform; e.g. File::Spec::Unix checks `$ENV{TMPDIR}`
    (unless taint is on) and `/tmp`.

    ```perl
    $tmpdir = File::Spec->tmpdir();
    ```

- updir

    Returns a string representation of the parent directory.

    ```perl
    $updir = File::Spec->updir();
    ```

- no\_upwards

    Given a list of files in a directory (such as from `readdir()`),
    strip out `'.'` and `'..'`.

    **SECURITY NOTE:** This does NOT filter paths containing `'..'`, like
    `'../../../../etc/passwd'`, only literal matches to `'.'` and `'..'`.

    ```perl
    @paths = File::Spec->no_upwards( readdir $dirhandle );
    ```

- case\_tolerant

    Returns a true or false value indicating, respectively, that alphabetic
    case is not or is significant when comparing file specifications.
    Cygwin and Win32 accept an optional drive argument.

    ```perl
    $is_case_tolerant = File::Spec->case_tolerant();
    ```

- file\_name\_is\_absolute

    Takes as its argument a path, and returns true if it is an absolute path.

    ```perl
    $is_absolute = File::Spec->file_name_is_absolute( $path );
    ```

    This does not consult the local filesystem on Unix, Win32, OS/2, or
    Mac OS (Classic).  It does consult the working environment for VMS
    (see ["file\_name\_is\_absolute" in File::Spec::VMS](Spec/VMS.md)).

- path

    Takes no argument.  Returns the environment variable `PATH` (or the local
    platform's equivalent) as a list.

    ```perl
    @PATH = File::Spec->path();
    ```

- join

    join is the same as catfile.

- splitpath

    Splits a path in to volume, directory, and filename portions. On systems
    with no concept of volume, returns '' for volume. 

    ```perl
    ($volume,$directories,$file) =
                       File::Spec->splitpath( $path );
    ($volume,$directories,$file) =
                       File::Spec->splitpath( $path, $no_file );
    ```

    For systems with no syntax differentiating filenames from directories, 
    assumes that the last file is a path unless `$no_file` is true or a
    trailing separator or `/.` or `/..` is present. On Unix, this means that `$no_file`
    true makes this return ( '', $path, '' ).

    The directory portion may or may not be returned with a trailing '/'.

    The results can be passed to "catpath()" to get back a path equivalent to
    (usually identical to) the original path.

- splitdir

    The opposite of "catdir".

    ```perl
    @dirs = File::Spec->splitdir( $directories );
    ```

    `$directories` must be only the directory portion of the path on systems 
    that have the concept of a volume or that have path syntax that differentiates
    files from directories.

    Unlike just splitting the directories on the separator, empty
    directory names (`''`) can be returned, because these are significant
    on some OSes.

- catpath()

    Takes volume, directory and file portions and returns an entire path. Under
    Unix, `$volume` is ignored, and directory and file are concatenated.  A '/' is
    inserted if need be.  On other OSes, `$volume` is significant.

    ```perl
    $full_path = File::Spec->catpath( $volume, $directory, $file );
    ```

- abs2rel

    Takes a destination path and an optional base path returns a relative path
    from the base path to the destination path:

    ```perl
    $rel_path = File::Spec->abs2rel( $path ) ;
    $rel_path = File::Spec->abs2rel( $path, $base ) ;
    ```

    If `$base` is not present or '', then [Cwd::cwd()](../Cwd.md) is used. If `$base` is
    relative, then it is converted to absolute form using
    "rel2abs()". This means that it is taken to be relative to
    [Cwd::cwd()](../Cwd.md).

    On systems with the concept of volume, if `$path` and `$base` appear to be
    on two different volumes, we will not attempt to resolve the two
    paths, and we will instead simply return `$path`.  Note that previous
    versions of this module ignored the volume of `$base`, which resulted in
    garbage results part of the time.

    On systems that have a grammar that indicates filenames, this ignores the 
    `$base` filename as well. Otherwise all path components are assumed to be
    directories.

    If `$path` is relative, it is converted to absolute form using "rel2abs()".
    This means that it is taken to be relative to [Cwd::cwd()](../Cwd.md).

    No checks against the filesystem are made.  On VMS, there is
    interaction with the working environment, as logicals and
    macros are expanded.

    Based on code written by Shigio Yamaguchi.

- rel2abs()

    Converts a relative path to an absolute path. 

    ```perl
    $abs_path = File::Spec->rel2abs( $path ) ;
    $abs_path = File::Spec->rel2abs( $path, $base ) ;
    ```

    If `$base` is not present or '', then [Cwd::cwd()](../Cwd.md) is used. If `$base` is relative,
    then it is converted to absolute form using "rel2abs()". This means that it
    is taken to be relative to [Cwd::cwd()](../Cwd.md).

    On systems with the concept of volume, if `$path` and `$base` appear to be
    on two different volumes, we will not attempt to resolve the two
    paths, and we will instead simply return `$path`.  Note that previous
    versions of this module ignored the volume of `$base`, which resulted in
    garbage results part of the time.

    On systems that have a grammar that indicates filenames, this ignores the 
    `$base` filename as well. Otherwise all path components are assumed to be
    directories.

    If `$path` is absolute, it is cleaned up and returned using "canonpath".

    No checks against the filesystem are made.  On VMS, there is
    interaction with the working environment, as logicals and
    macros are expanded.

    Based on code written by Shigio Yamaguchi.

For further information, please see [File::Spec::Unix](Spec/Unix.md),
[File::Spec::Mac](Spec/Mac.md), [File::Spec::OS2](Spec/OS2.md), [File::Spec::Win32](Spec/Win32.md), or
[File::Spec::VMS](Spec/VMS.md).

## SEE ALSO

[File::Spec::Unix](Spec/Unix.md), [File::Spec::Mac](Spec/Mac.md), [File::Spec::OS2](Spec/OS2.md),
[File::Spec::Win32](Spec/Win32.md), [File::Spec::VMS](Spec/VMS.md), [File::Spec::Functions](Spec/Functions.md),
[ExtUtils::MakeMaker](../ExtUtils/MakeMaker.md)

## AUTHOR

Maintained by perl5-porters <`perl5-porters@perl.org`>.

The vast majority of the code was written by
Kenneth Albanowski `<kjahds@kjahds.com>`,
Andy Dougherty `<doughera@lafayette.edu>`,
Andreas König `<A.Koenig@franz.ww.TU-Berlin.DE>`,
Tim Bunce `<Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk>`.
VMS support by Charles Bailey `<bailey@newman.upenn.edu>`.
OS/2 support by Ilya Zakharevich `<ilya@math.ohio-state.edu>`.
Mac support by Paul Schinder `<schinder@pobox.com>`, and
Thomas Wegner `<wegner_thomas@yahoo.com>`.
abs2rel() and rel2abs() written by Shigio Yamaguchi `<shigio@tamacom.com>`,
modified by Barrie Slaymaker `<barries@slaysys.com>`.
splitpath(), splitdir(), catpath() and catdir() by Barrie Slaymaker.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2004-2013 by the Perl 5 Porters.  All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.

## Modules

- [`File::Spec::AmigaOS`](Spec/AmigaOS.md) - File::Spec for AmigaOS
- [`File::Spec::Cygwin`](Spec/Cygwin.md) - methods for Cygwin file specs
- [`File::Spec::Epoc`](Spec/Epoc.md) - methods for Epoc file specs
- [`File::Spec::Functions`](Spec/Functions.md) - portably perform operations on file names
- [`File::Spec::Mac`](Spec/Mac.md) - File::Spec for Mac OS (Classic)
- [`File::Spec::OS2`](Spec/OS2.md) - methods for OS/2 file specs
- [`File::Spec::Unix`](Spec/Unix.md) - File::Spec for Unix, base for other File::Spec modules
- [`File::Spec::VMS`](Spec/VMS.md) - methods for VMS file specs
- [`File::Spec::Win32`](Spec/Win32.md) - methods for Win32 file specs

```{toctree}
:hidden:
:maxdepth: 1

Spec/AmigaOS
Spec/Cygwin
Spec/Epoc
Spec/Functions
Spec/Mac
Spec/OS2
Spec/Unix
Spec/VMS
Spec/Win32
```