filesystem.md

std::filesystem

The std::filesystem library in C++, introduced in C++17 and further expanded in C++20, provides facilities for performing operations on file systems and their components, such as paths, regular files, and directories. Here is a brief overview of the main classes and functions available in std::filesystem:

Classes

1. std::filesystem::path: Represents a file system path.
2. std::filesystem::directory_entry: Represents a directory entry and provides information about the entry.
3. std::filesystem::directory_iterator: An iterator to iterate through the contents of a directory.
4. std::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator: Like directory_iterator, but recursively iterates through a directory and all of its subdirectories.
5. std::filesystem::file_status: Provides information about the type and permissions of a file.
6. std::filesystem::filesystem_error: An exception type thrown by functions in the std::filesystem namespace.

Functions

1. Path Operations

   • absolute
   • canonical
   • relative
   • proximate

2. File Status and Properties

   • status
   • status_known
   • is_block_file
   • is_character_file
   • is_directory
   • is_empty
   • is_fifo
   • is_other
   • is_regular_file
   • is_socket
   • is_symlink
   • exists
   • file_size
   • hard_link_count
   • last_write_time

3. File and Directory Operations

   • create_directory
   • create_directories
   • create_hard_link
   • create_symlink
   • create_directory_symlink
   • copy
   • copy_file
   • copy_symlink
   • remove
   • remove_all
   • rename
   • resize_file
   • space
   • temp_directory_path

4. Directory Iteration

   • directory_iterator and recursive_directory_iterator mentioned earlier.

5. Miscellaneous

   • current_path
   • equivalent
   • permissions

These classes and functions provide a comprehensive interface for filesystem operations, such as querying file attributes, creating and removing files and directories, and iterating through directories. The std::filesystem library greatly simplifies file system manipulation in C++, making it more intuitive and less error-prone compared to traditional file handling methods.

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