The error mode for any recursive operation.

On FailEarly the whole operation fails immediately if any of the recursive sub-operations fail, which is sort of the default for IO operations.

On CollectFailures skips errors in the recursion and keeps on recursing. However all errors are collected in the RecursiveFailure error type, which is raised finally if there was any error.

The mode for copy and file moves. Overwrite mode is usually not very well defined, but is a convenience shortcut.

Copies the contents of a directory recursively to the given destination. Does not follow symbolic links. This behaves more or less like:

  mkdir /destination/dir
  cp -R /source/dir/* /destination/dir/

For directory contents, this will ignore any file type that is not RegularFile, SymbolicLink or Directory.

For Overwrite copy mode this does not prune destination directory contents, so the destination might contain more files than the source after the operation has completed. Permissions of existing directories are fixed.

Note that there is no guaranteed ordering of the exceptions contained within RecursiveFailure in CollectFailures RecursiveErrorMode.

Safety/reliability concerns:

• not atomic
• examines filetypes explicitly
• an explicit check throwDestinationInSource is carried out for the top directory for basic sanity, because otherwise we might end up with an infinite copy loop... however, this operation is not carried out recursively (because it's slow)

Throws:

• NoSuchThing if source directory does not exist
• PermissionDenied if source directory can't be opened
• SameFile if source and destination are the same file (HPathIOException)
• DestinationInSource if destination is contained in source (HPathIOException)

Throws in FailEarly RecursiveErrorMode only:

• PermissionDenied if output directory is not writable
• InvalidArgument if source directory is wrong type (symlink)
• InappropriateType if source directory is wrong type (regular file)

Throws in CollectFailures RecursiveErrorMode only:

• RecursiveFailure if any of the recursive operations that are not part of the top-directory sanity-checks fail (HPathIOException)

Throws in Strict CopyMode only:

• AlreadyExists if destination already exists

Recreate a symlink.

In Overwrite copy mode only files and empty directories are deleted.

Safety/reliability concerns:

• Overwrite mode is inherently non-atomic

Throws:

• InvalidArgument if source file is wrong type (not a symlink)
• PermissionDenied if output directory cannot be written to
• PermissionDenied if source directory cannot be opened
• SameFile if source and destination are the same file (HPathIOException)

Throws in Strict mode only:

• AlreadyExists if destination file already exists

Throws in Overwrite mode only:

• UnsatisfiedConstraints if destination file is non-empty directory

Note: calls symlink

Copies the given regular file to the given destination. Neither follows symbolic links, nor accepts them. For "copying" symbolic links, use recreateSymlink instead.

Note that this is still sort of a low-level function and doesn't examine file types. For a more high-level version, use easyCopy instead.

In Overwrite copy mode only overwrites actual files, not directories.

Safety/reliability concerns:

• Overwrite mode is not atomic
• when used on CharacterDevice, reads the "contents" and copies them to a regular file, which might take indefinitely
• when used on BlockDevice, may either read the "contents" and copy them to a regular file (potentially hanging indefinitely) or may create a regular empty destination file
• when used on NamedPipe, will hang indefinitely

Throws:

• NoSuchThing if source file does not exist
• NoSuchThing if source file is a a Socket
• PermissionDenied if output directory is not writable
• PermissionDenied if source directory can't be opened
• InvalidArgument if source file is wrong type (symlink or directory)
• SameFile if source and destination are the same file (HPathIOException)

Throws in Strict mode only:

• AlreadyExists if destination already exists

Note: calls sendfile and possibly read/write as fallback

Copies a regular file, directory or symbolic link. In case of a symbolic link it is just recreated, even if it points to a directory. Any other file type is ignored.

Safety/reliability concerns:

• examines filetypes explicitly
• calls copyDirRecursive for directories

Deletes the given file. Raises eISDIR if run on a directory. Does not follow symbolic links.

Throws:

• InappropriateType for wrong file type (directory)
• NoSuchThing if the file does not exist
• PermissionDenied if the directory cannot be read

Deletes the given directory, which must be empty, never symlinks.

Throws:

• InappropriateType for wrong file type (symlink to directory)
• InappropriateType for wrong file type (regular file)
• NoSuchThing if directory does not exist
• UnsatisfiedConstraints if directory is not empty
• PermissionDenied if we can't open or write to parent directory

Notes: calls rmdir

Deletes the given directory recursively. Does not follow symbolic links. Tries deleteDir first before attemtping a recursive deletion.

On directory contents this behaves like easyDelete and thus will ignore any file type that is not RegularFile, SymbolicLink or Directory.

Safety/reliability concerns:

• not atomic
• examines filetypes explicitly

Throws:

• InappropriateType for wrong file type (symlink to directory)
• InappropriateType for wrong file type (regular file)
• NoSuchThing if directory does not exist
• PermissionDenied if we can't open or write to parent directory

Deletes a file, directory or symlink. In case of directory, performs recursive deletion. In case of a symlink, the symlink file is deleted. Any other file type is ignored.

Safety/reliability concerns:

• examines filetypes explicitly
• calls deleteDirRecursive for directories

Opens a file appropriately by invoking xdg-open. The file type is not checked. This forks a process.

Executes a program with the given arguments. This forks a process.

Create an empty regular file at the given directory with the given filename.

Throws:

• PermissionDenied if output directory cannot be written to
• AlreadyExists if destination file already exists

Create an empty directory at the given directory with the given filename.

Throws:

• PermissionDenied if output directory cannot be written to
• AlreadyExists if destination directory already exists

Create a symlink.

Throws:

• PermissionDenied if output directory cannot be written to
• AlreadyExists if destination file already exists

Note: calls symlink

Rename a given file with the provided filename. Destination and source must be on the same device, otherwise eXDEV will be raised.

Does not follow symbolic links, but renames the symbolic link file.

Safety/reliability concerns:

• has a separate set of exception handling, apart from the syscall

Throws:

• NoSuchThing if source file does not exist
• PermissionDenied if output directory cannot be written to
• PermissionDenied if source directory cannot be opened
• UnsupportedOperation if source and destination are on different devices
• FileDoesExist if destination file already exists (HPathIOException)
• DirDoesExist if destination directory already exists (HPathIOException)
• SameFile if destination and source are the same file (HPathIOException)

Note: calls rename (but does not allow to rename over existing files)

Move a file. This also works across devices by copy-delete fallback. And also works on directories.

Does not follow symbolic links, but renames the symbolic link file.

Safety/reliability concerns:

• Overwrite mode is not atomic
• copy-delete fallback is inherently non-atomic
• since this function calls easyCopy and easyDelete as a fallback to renameFile, file types that are not RegularFile, SymbolicLink or Directory may be ignored
• for Overwrite mode, the destination will be deleted (not recursively) before moving

Throws:

• NoSuchThing if source file does not exist
• PermissionDenied if output directory cannot be written to
• PermissionDenied if source directory cannot be opened
• SameFile if destination and source are the same file (HPathIOException)

Throws in Strict mode only:

• FileDoesExist if destination file already exists (HPathIOException)
• DirDoesExist if destination directory already exists (HPathIOException)

Note: calls rename (but does not allow to rename over existing files)

Default permissions for a new file.

Default permissions for a new directory.

Gets all filenames of the given directory. This excludes "." and "..". This version does not follow symbolic links.

The contents are not sorted and there is no guarantee on the ordering.

Throws:

• NoSuchThing if directory does not exist
• InappropriateType if file type is wrong (file)
• InappropriateType if file type is wrong (symlink to file)
• InappropriateType if file type is wrong (symlink to dir)
• PermissionDenied if directory cannot be opened

Get the file type of the file located at the given path. Does not follow symbolic links.

Throws:

• NoSuchThing if the file does not exist
• PermissionDenied if any part of the path is not accessible

Applies realpath on the given absolute path.

Throws:

• NoSuchThing if the file at the given path does not exist
• NoSuchThing if the symlink is broken