class Dir < Object

Objects of class Dir are directory streams representing directories in the underlying file system. They provide a variety of ways to list directories and their contents. See also File, page 301. The directory used in these examples contains the two regular files (config.h and main.rb), the parent directory (..), and the directory itself (.).

mixins

Enumerable

collect, detect, each_with_index, entries, find, find_all, grep, include?, map, max, member?, min, reject, select, sort, to_a

class methods

[ ]

Dir[ aString ] → anArray

Returns anArray of filenames found by expanding the pattern given in aString. Note that this pattern is not a regexp (it's closer to a shell glob) and may contain the following metacharacters:

**	Matches subdirectories recursively
*	Matches zero or more characters
?	Matches any single character
[ charSet ]	Matches any character from the given set of characters. A range of characters is written as charFrom-charTo. The set may be negated with an initial uparrow (^).
{ opt, opt, ... }	Matches any one of the optional strings

Dir["config.?"] → ["config.h"] Dir["*.[a-z][a-z]"] → ["main.rb"] Dir["*.[^r]*"] → ["config.h"] Dir["*.{rb,h}"] → ["main.rb", "config.h"] Dir["*"] → ["config.h", "main.rb"]

chdir

Dir.chdir( [ aString] ) → 0

Changes the current working directory of the process to the given string. When called without an argument, changes the directory to the value of the environment variable HOME, or LOGDIR. Raises a SystemCallError (probably Errno::ENOENT) if the target directory does not exist.

Dir.chdir("/var/spool/mail") → 0 Dir.pwd → "/var/spool/mail"

chroot

Dir.chroot( aString ) → 0

Changes this process's idea of the file system root. Only a privileged process may make this call. Not available on all platforms. On Unix systems, see chroot(2) for more information.

Dir.chdir("/production/secure/root") Dir.chroot("/production/secure/root") → 0 Dir.pwd → "/"

delete

Dir.delete( aString ) → 0

Deletes the named directory. Raises a subclass of SystemCallError if the directory isn't empty.

entries

Dir.entries( aString ) → anArray

Returns an array containing all of the filenames in the given directory. Will raise a SystemCallError if the named directory doesn't exist.

Dir.entries("testdir") → [".", "..", "config.h", "main.rb"]

foreach

Dir.foreach( aString ) {| filename | block } → nil

Calls the block once for each entry in the named directory, passing the filename of each entry as a parameter to the block.

Dir.foreach("testdir") {|x| puts("Got " + x) }

produces:

Got . Got .. Got config.h Got main.rb

getwd

Dir.getwd → aString

Returns the path to the current working directory of this process as a string.

Dir.chdir("/tmp") → 0 Dir.getwd → "/tmp"

glob

Dir.glob( aString ) → anArray

Synonym for Dir.[].

mkdir

Dir.mkdir( aString [, anInteger] ) → 0

Makes a new directory named by aString, with permissions specified by the optional parameter anInteger. The permissions may be modified by the value of File.umask, and are ignored on NT. Raises a SystemCallError if the directory cannot be created. See also the discussion of permissions.

new

Dir.new( aString ) → aDir

Returns a new directory object for the named directory.

open

Dir.open( aString ) → aDir

Dir.open( aString ) {| aDir | block } → nil

With no block, open is a synonym for Dir.new. If a block is present, it is passed aDir as a parameter. The directory is closed at the end of the block, and Dir.open returns nil.

pwd

Dir.pwd → aString

Synonym for Dir.getwd.

rmdir

Dir.rmdir( aString ) → true

Synonym for Dir.delete.

unlink

Dir.unlink( aString ) → true

Synonym for Dir.delete.

instance methods

close

dir.close → nil

Closes the directory stream. Any further attempts to access dir will raise an IOError.

d = Dir.new("testdir") d.close → nil

each

dir.each {| | block } → dir

Calls the block once for each entry in this directory, passing the filename of each entry as a parameter to the block.

d = Dir.new("testdir") d.each {|x| puts ("Got " + x) }

produces:

Got . Got .. Got config.h Got main.rb

read

dir.read → aString or nil

Reads the next entry from dir and returns it as a string. Returns nil at the end of the stream.

d = Dir.new("testdir") d.read → "." d.read → ".." d.read → "config.h"

rewind

dir.rewind → dir

Repositions dir to the first entry.

d = Dir.new("testdir") d.read → "." d.rewind → #<Dir:0x401b5cac> d.read → "."

seek

dir.seek( anInteger ) → dir

Seeks to a particular location in dir. anInteger must be a value returned by Dir#tell.

d = Dir.new("testdir") d.read → "." i = d.tell d.read → ".." d.seek(i) → #<Dir:0x401b5cac> d.read → ".."

tell

dir.tell → anInteger

Returns the current position in dir. See also Dir#seek.

d = Dir.new("testdir") d.tell → 0 d.read → "." d.tell → 12