meson/docs/markdown/Fs-module.md

FS (filesystem) module

This module provides functions to inspect the file system. It is available starting with version 0.53.0.

File lookup rules

Non-absolute paths are looked up relative to the directory where the current meson.build file is.

If specified, a leading ~ is expanded to the user home directory.

Where possible, symlinks and parent directory notation are resolved to an absolute path.

exists

Takes a single string argument and returns true if an entity with that name exists on the file system. This can be a file, directory or a special entry such as a device node.

is_dir

Takes a single string argument and returns true if a directory with that name exists on the file system.

is_file

Takes a single string argument and returns true if an file with that name exists on the file system.

is_symlink

Takes a single string argument and returns true if the path pointed to by the string is a symbolic link.

File Parameters

is_absolute

Return a boolean indicating if the path string specified is absolute, WITHOUT expanding ~.

Examples:

fs.is_absolute('~')   # false unless you literally have a path with string name `~`

home = fs.expanduser('~')
fs.is_absolute(home)  # true

fs.is_absolute(home / 'foo')  # true, even if ~/foo doesn't exist

fs.is_absolute('foo/bar')  # false, even if ./foo/bar exists

hash

The fs.hash(filename, hash_algorithm) method returns a string containing the hexidecimal hash_algorithm digest of a file. hash_algorithm is a string; the available hash algorithms include: md5, sha1, sha224, sha256, sha384, sha512.

size

The fs.size(filename) method returns the size of the file in integer bytes.

is_samepath

The fs.is_samepath(path1, path2) returns boolean true if both paths resolve to the same path. For example, suppose path1 is a symlink and path2 is a relative path. If path1 can be resolved to path2, then true is returned. If path1 is not resolved to path2, false is returned. If path1 or path2 do not exist, false is returned.

Examples:

x = 'foo.txt'
y = 'sub/../foo.txt'
z = 'bar.txt'  # a symlink pointing to foo.txt
j = 'notafile.txt'  # non-existant file

fs.is_samepath(x, y)  # true
fs.is_samepath(x, z)  # true
fs.is_samepath(x, j)  # false

p = 'foo/bar'
q = 'foo/bar/../baz'
r = 'buz'  # a symlink pointing to foo/bar
s = 'notapath'  # non-existant directory

fs.is_samepath(p, q)  # true
fs.is_samepath(p, r)  # true
fs.is_samepath(p, s)  # false

Filename modification

The files need not actually exist yet for these path string manipulation methods.

expanduser

A path string with a leading ~ is expanded to the user home directory

Examples:

fs.expanduser('~')  # home directory

fs.expanduser('~/foo')  # <homedir>/foo

as_posix

fs.as_posix(path) assumes a Windows path, even if on a Unix-like system. Thus, all '\' or '\\' are turned to '/', even if you meant to escape a character.

Examples

fs.as_posix('\\') == '/'  # true
fs.as_posix('\\\\') == '/'  # true

fs.as_posix('foo\\bar/baz') == 'foo/bar/baz'  # true

replace_suffix

The replace_suffix method is a string manipulation convenient for filename modifications. It allows changing the filename suffix like:

swap suffix

original = '/opt/foo.ini'
new = fs.replace_suffix(original, '.txt')  # /opt/foo.txt

add suffix

original = '/opt/foo'
new = fs.replace_suffix(original, '.txt')  # /opt/foo.txt

compound suffix swap

original = '/opt/foo.dll.a'
new = fs.replace_suffix(original, '.so')  # /opt/foo.dll.so

delete suffix

original = '/opt/foo.dll.a'
new = fs.replace_suffix(original, '')  # /opt/foo.dll

parent

Returns the parent directory (i.e. dirname).

name

Returns the last component of the path (i.e. basename).