
=head1 NAME

Path::Class - Cross-platform path specification manipulation for Perl

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  use Path::Class;
  
  my $dir  = dir('foo', 'bar');       # Path::Class::Dir object
  my $file = file('bob', 'file.txt'); # Path::Class::File object
  
  # Stringifies to 'foo/bar' on Unix, 'foo\bar' on Windows, etc.
  print "dir: $dir\n";
  
  # Stringifies to 'bob/file.txt' on Unix, 'bob\file.txt' on Windows
  print "file: $file\n";
  
  my $subdir  = $dir->subdir('baz');  # foo/bar/baz
  my $parent  = $subdir->parent;      # foo/bar
  my $parent2 = $parent->parent;      # foo
  
  my $dir2 = $file->dir;              # bob

  # Work with foreign paths
  use Path::Class qw(foreign_file foreign_dir);
  my $file = foreign_file('Mac', ':foo:file.txt');
  print $file->dir;                   # :foo:
  print $file->as_foreign('Win32');   # foo\file.txt
  
  # Interact with the underlying filesystem:
  
  # $dir_handle is an IO::Dir object
  my $dir_handle = $dir->open or die "Can't read $dir: $!";
  
  # $file_handle is an IO::File object
  my $file_handle = $file->open($mode) or die "Can't read $file: $!";

=head1 DESCRIPTION

C<Path::Class> is a module for manipulation of file and directory
specifications (strings describing their locations, like
C<'/home/ken/foo.txt'> or C<'C:\Windows\Foo.txt'>) in a cross-platform
manner.  It supports pretty much every platform Perl runs on,
including Unix, Windows, Mac, VMS, Epoc, Cygwin, OS/2, and NetWare.

The well-known module L<File::Spec> also provides this service, but
it's sort of awkward to use well, so people sometimes avoid it, or use
it in a way that won't actually work properly on platforms
significantly different than the ones they've tested their code on.

In fact, C<Path::Class> uses C<File::Spec> internally, wrapping all
the unsightly details so you can concentrate on your application code.
Whereas C<File::Spec> provides functions for some common path
manipulations, C<Path::Class> provides an object-oriented model of the
world of path specifications and their underlying semantics.
C<File::Spec> doesn't create any objects, and its classes represent
the different ways in which paths must be manipulated on various
platforms (not a very intuitive concept).  C<Path::Class> creates
objects representing files and directories, and provides methods that
relate them to each other.  For instance, the following C<File::Spec>
code:

 my $absolute = File::Spec->file_name_is_absolute(
                  File::Spec->catfile( @dirs, $file )
                );

can be written using C<Path::Class> as

 my $absolute = Path::Class::File->new( @dirs, $file )->is_absolute;

or even as 

 my $absolute = file( @dirs, $file )->is_absolute;

Similar readability improvements should happen all over the place when
using C<Path::Class>.

Using C<Path::Class> can help solve real problems in your code too -
for instance, how many people actually take the "volume" (like C<C:>
on Windows) into account when writing C<File::Spec>-using code?  I
thought not.  But if you use C<Path::Class>, your file and directory objects
will know what volumes they refer to and do the right thing.

The guts of the C<Path::Class> code live in the L<Path::Class::File>
and L<Path::Class::Dir> modules, so please see those
modules' documentation for more details about how to use them.

=head2 EXPORT

The following functions are exported by default.

=over 4

=item file

A synonym for C<< Path::Class::File->new >>.

=item dir

A synonym for C<< Path::Class::Dir->new >>.

=back

If you would like to prevent their export, you may explicitly pass an
empty list to perl's C<use>, i.e. C<use Path::Class ()>.

The following are exported only on demand.

=over 4

=item foreign_file

A synonym for C<< Path::Class::File->new_foreign >>.

=item foreign_dir

A synonym for C<< Path::Class::Dir->new_foreign >>.

=item tempdir

Create a new Path::Class::Dir instance pointed to temporary directory.

  my $temp = Path::Class::tempdir(CLEANUP => 1);

A synonym for C<< Path::Class::Dir->new(File::Temp::tempdir(@_)) >>.

=back

=head1 Notes on Cross-Platform Compatibility

Although it is much easier to write cross-platform-friendly code with
this module than with C<File::Spec>, there are still some issues to be
aware of.

=over 4

=item *

On some platforms, notably VMS and some older versions of DOS (I think),
all filenames must have an extension.  Thus if you create a file
called F<foo/bar> and then ask for a list of files in the directory
F<foo>, you may find a file called F<bar.> instead of the F<bar> you
were expecting.  Thus it might be a good idea to use an extension in
the first place.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Ken Williams, KWILLIAMS@cpan.org

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) Ken Williams.  All rights reserved.

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


=head1 SEE ALSO

L<Path::Class::Dir>, L<Path::Class::File>, L<File::Spec>

=cut
