Dir

Class

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.

The directory used in these examples contains the two regular files (config.h and main.rb), the parent directory (..), and the directory itself (.).

What’s Here

First, what’s elsewhere. Class Dir:

Here, class Dir provides methods that are useful for:

Reading

  • close: Closes the directory stream for self.

  • pos=: Sets the position in the directory stream for self.

  • read: Reads and returns the next entry in the directory stream for self.

  • rewind: Sets the position in the directory stream for self to the first entry.

  • seek: Sets the position in the directory stream for self the entry at the given offset.

Setting

  • ::chdir: Changes the working directory of the current process to the given directory.

  • ::chroot: Changes the file-system root for the current process to the given directory.

Querying

  • ::[]: Same as ::glob without the ability to pass flags.

  • ::children: Returns an array of names of the children (both files and directories) of the given directory, but not including . or ...

  • ::empty?: Returns whether the given path is an empty directory.

  • ::entries: Returns an array of names of the children (both files and directories) of the given directory, including . and ...

  • ::exist?: Returns whether the given path is a directory.

  • ::getwd (aliased as pwd): Returns the path to the current working directory.

  • ::glob: Returns an array of file paths matching the given pattern and flags.

  • ::home: Returns the home directory path for a given user or the current user.

  • children: Returns an array of names of the children (both files and directories) of self, but not including . or ...

  • fileno: Returns the integer file descriptor for self.

  • path (aliased as to_path): Returns the path used to create self.

  • tell (aliased as pos): Returns the integer position in the directory stream for self.

Iterating

  • ::each_child: Calls the given block with each entry in the given directory, but not including . or ...

  • ::foreach: Calls the given block with each entry in the given directory, including . and ...

  • each: Calls the given block with each entry in self, including . and ...

  • each_child: Calls the given block with each entry in self, but not including . or ...

Other

  • ::mkdir: Creates a directory at the given path, with optional permissions.

  • ::new: Returns a new Dir for the given path, with optional encoding.

  • ::open: Same as ::new, but if a block is given, yields the Dir to the block, closing it upon block exit.

  • ::unlink (aliased as ::delete and ::rmdir): Removes the given directory.

  • inspect: Returns a string description of self.

Class Methods

Equivalent to calling Dir.glob([string,…], 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. SystemCallError (probably Errno::ENOENT) if the target directory does not exist.

If a block is given, it is passed the name of the new current directory, and the block is executed with that as the current directory. The original working directory is restored when the block exits. The return value of chdir is the value of the block. chdir blocks can be nested, but in a multi-threaded program an error will be raised if a thread attempts to open a chdir block while another thread has one open or a call to chdir without a block occurs inside a block passed to chdir (even in the same thread).

Dir.chdir("/var/spool/mail")
puts Dir.pwd
Dir.chdir("/tmp") do
  puts Dir.pwd
  Dir.chdir("/usr") do
    puts Dir.pwd
  end
  puts Dir.pwd
end
puts Dir.pwd

produces:

/var/spool/mail
/tmp
/usr
/tmp
/var/spool/mail

Returns an array containing all of the filenames except for “.” and “..” in the given directory. Will raise a SystemCallError if the named directory doesn’t exist.

The optional encoding keyword argument specifies the encoding of the directory. If not specified, the filesystem encoding is used.

Dir.children("testdir")   #=> ["config.h", "main.rb"]

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.

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

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

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

Dir.each_child("testdir") {|x| puts "Got #{x}" }

produces:

Got config.h
Got main.rb

Returns true if the named file is an empty directory, false if it is not a directory or non-empty.

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

The optional encoding keyword argument specifies the encoding of the directory. If not specified, the filesystem encoding is used.

Dir.entries("testdir")   #=> [".", "..", "config.h", "main.rb"]

Returns true if the named file is a directory, false otherwise.

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

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

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

produces:

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

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

Dir.chdir("/tmp")   #=> 0
Dir.getwd           #=> "/tmp"
Dir.pwd             #=> "/tmp"

Expands pattern, which is a pattern string or an Array of pattern strings, and returns an array containing the matching filenames. If a block is given, calls the block once for each matching filename, passing the filename as a parameter to the block.

The optional base keyword argument specifies the base directory for interpreting relative pathnames instead of the current working directory. As the results are not prefixed with the base directory name in this case, you will need to prepend the base directory name if you want real paths.

The results which matched single wildcard or character set are sorted in binary ascending order, unless false is given as the optional sort keyword argument. The order of an Array of pattern strings and braces are preserved.

Note that the pattern is not a regexp, it’s closer to a shell glob. See File::fnmatch for the meaning of the flags parameter. Case sensitivity depends on your system (File::FNM_CASEFOLD is ignored).

*

Matches any file. Can be restricted by other values in the glob. Equivalent to /.*/mx in regexp.

*

Matches all files

c*

Matches all files beginning with c

*c

Matches all files ending with c

*c*

Match all files that have c in them (including at the beginning or end).

Note, this will not match Unix-like hidden files (dotfiles). In order to include those in the match results, you must use the File::FNM_DOTMATCH flag or something like "{*,.*}".

**

Matches directories recursively if followed by /. If this path segment contains any other characters, it is the same as the usual *.

?

Matches any one character. Equivalent to /.{1}/ in regexp.

[set]

Matches any one character in set. Behaves exactly like character sets in Regexp, including set negation ([^a-z]).

{p,q}

Matches either literal p or literal q. Equivalent to pattern alternation in regexp.

Matching literals may be more than one character in length. More than two literals may be specified.

\

Escapes the next metacharacter.

Note that this means you cannot use backslash on windows as part of a glob, i.e. Dir["c:\foo*"] will not work, use Dir["c:/foo*"] instead.

Examples:

Dir["config.?"]                     #=> ["config.h"]
Dir.glob("config.?")                #=> ["config.h"]
Dir.glob("*.[a-z][a-z]")            #=> ["main.rb"]
Dir.glob("*.[^r]*")                 #=> ["config.h"]
Dir.glob("*.{rb,h}")                #=> ["main.rb", "config.h"]
Dir.glob("*")                       #=> ["config.h", "main.rb"]
Dir.glob("*", File::FNM_DOTMATCH)   #=> [".", "config.h", "main.rb"]
Dir.glob(["*.rb", "*.h"])           #=> ["main.rb", "config.h"]

Dir.glob("**/*.rb")                 #=> ["main.rb",
                                    #    "lib/song.rb",
                                    #    "lib/song/karaoke.rb"]

Dir.glob("**/*.rb", base: "lib")    #=> ["song.rb",
                                    #    "song/karaoke.rb"]

Dir.glob("**/lib")                  #=> ["lib"]

Dir.glob("**/lib/**/*.rb")          #=> ["lib/song.rb",
                                    #    "lib/song/karaoke.rb"]

Dir.glob("**/lib/*.rb")             #=> ["lib/song.rb"]

Returns the home directory of the current user or the named user if given.

Makes a new directory named by string, 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 in the class documentation for File.

Dir.mkdir(File.join(Dir.home, ".foo"), 0700) #=> 0

Dir.mktmpdir creates a temporary directory.

The directory is created with 0700 permission. Application should not change the permission to make the temporary directory accessible from other users.

The prefix and suffix of the name of the directory is specified by the optional first argument, prefix_suffix.

  • If it is not specified or nil, “d” is used as the prefix and no suffix is used.

  • If it is a string, it is used as the prefix and no suffix is used.

  • If it is an array, first element is used as the prefix and second element is used as a suffix.

Dir.mktmpdir {|dir| dir is ".../d..." }
Dir.mktmpdir("foo") {|dir| dir is ".../foo..." }
Dir.mktmpdir(["foo", "bar"]) {|dir| dir is ".../foo...bar" }

The directory is created under Dir.tmpdir or the optional second argument tmpdir if non-nil value is given.

Dir.mktmpdir {|dir| dir is "#{Dir.tmpdir}/d..." }
Dir.mktmpdir(nil, "/var/tmp") {|dir| dir is "/var/tmp/d..." }

If a block is given, it is yielded with the path of the directory. The directory and its contents are removed using FileUtils.remove_entry before Dir.mktmpdir returns. The value of the block is returned.

Dir.mktmpdir {|dir|
  # use the directory...
  open("#{dir}/foo", "w") { something using the file }
}

If a block is not given, The path of the directory is returned. In this case, Dir.mktmpdir doesn’t remove the directory.

dir = Dir.mktmpdir
begin
  # use the directory...
  open("#{dir}/foo", "w") { something using the file }
ensure
  # remove the directory.
  FileUtils.remove_entry dir
end

Returns a new directory object for the named directory.

The optional encoding keyword argument specifies the encoding of the directory. If not specified, the filesystem encoding is used.

The optional encoding keyword argument specifies the encoding of the directory. If not specified, the filesystem encoding is used.

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 the value of the block.

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

Dir.chdir("/tmp")   #=> 0
Dir.getwd           #=> "/tmp"
Dir.pwd             #=> "/tmp"

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

Returns the operating system’s temporary file path.

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

Instance Methods

Returns an array containing all of the filenames except for “.” and “..” in this directory.

d = Dir.new("testdir")
d.children   #=> ["config.h", "main.rb"]

Closes the directory stream. Calling this method on closed Dir object is ignored since Ruby 2.3.

d = Dir.new("testdir")
d.close   #=> nil

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

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

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

produces:

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

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

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

d = Dir.new("testdir")
d.each_child  {|x| puts "Got #{x}" }

produces:

Got config.h
Got main.rb

Returns the file descriptor used in dir.

d = Dir.new("..")
d.fileno   #=> 8

This method uses dirfd() function defined by POSIX 2008. NotImplementedError is raised on other platforms, such as Windows, which doesn’t provide the function.

Return a string describing this Dir object.

Returns the path parameter passed to dir’s constructor.

d = Dir.new("..")
d.path   #=> ".."

Synonym for Dir#seek, but returns the position parameter.

d = Dir.new("testdir")   #=> #<Dir:0x401b3c40>
d.read                   #=> "."
i = d.pos                #=> 12
d.read                   #=> ".."
d.pos = i                #=> 12
d.read                   #=> ".."

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"

Repositions dir to the first entry.

d = Dir.new("testdir")
d.read     #=> "."
d.rewind   #=> #<Dir:0x401b3fb0>
d.read     #=> "."

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

d = Dir.new("testdir")   #=> #<Dir:0x401b3c40>
d.read                   #=> "."
i = d.tell               #=> 12
d.read                   #=> ".."
d.seek(i)                #=> #<Dir:0x401b3c40>
d.read                   #=> ".."

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

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