hs.fs.md

docs » hs.fs

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Access/inspect the filesystem

This module is partial superset of LuaFileSystem 1.8.0 (http://keplerproject.github.io/luafilesystem/). It has been modified to remove functions which do not apply to macOS filesystems and additional functions providing macOS specific filesystem information have been added.

Submodules

• hs.fs.volume
• hs.fs.xattr

API Overview

• Functions - API calls offered directly by the extension
• attributes
• chdir
• currentDir
• dir
• displayName
• fileUTI
• fileUTIalternate
• getFinderComments
• link
• lock
• lockDir
• mkdir
• pathFromBookmark
• pathToAbsolute
• pathToBookmark
• rmdir
• setFinderComments
• symlinkAttributes
• tagsAdd
• tagsGet
• tagsRemove
• tagsSet
• temporaryDirectory
• touch
• unlock
• urlFromPath

API Documentation

Functions

attributes

Signature	hs.fs.attributes(filepath [, aName]) -> table or string or nil,error
Type	Function
Description	Gets the attributes of a file
Parameters	filepath - A string containing the path of a file to inspect aName - An optional attribute name. If this value is specified, only the attribute requested, is returned
Returns	A table with the file attributes corresponding to filepath (or nil followed by an error message in case of error). If the second optional argument is given, then a string is returned with the value of the named attribute. attribute mode is a string, all the others are numbers, and the time related attributes use the same time reference of os.time: dev - A number containing the device the file resides on ino - A number containing the inode of the file mode - A string containing the type of the file (possible values are: file, directory, link, socket, named pipe, char device, block device or other) nlink - A number containing a count of hard links to the file uid - A number containing the user-id of owner gid - A number containing the group-id of owner rdev - A number containing the type of device, for files that are char/block devices access - A number containing the time of last access modification (as seconds since the UNIX epoch) change - A number containing the time of last file status change (as seconds since the UNIX epoch) modification - A number containing the time of the last file contents change (as seconds since the UNIX epoch) permissions - A 9 character string specifying the user access permissions for the file. The first three characters represent Read/Write/Execute permissions for the file owner. The first character will be "r" if the user has read permissions, "-" if they do not; the second will be "w" if they have write permissions, "-" if they do not; the third will be "x" if they have execute permissions, "-" if they do not. The second group of three characters follow the same convention, but refer to whether or not the file's group have Read/Write/Execute permissions, and the final three characters follow the same convention, but apply to other system users not covered by the Owner or Group fields. creation - A number containing the time the file was created (as seconds since the UNIX epoch) size - A number containing the file size, in bytes blocks - A number containing the number of blocks allocated for file blksize - A number containing the optimal file system I/O blocksize
Notes	This function uses stat() internally thus if the given filepath is a symbolic link, it is followed (if it points to another link the chain is followed recursively) and the information is about the file it refers to. To obtain information about the link itself, see function hs.fs.symlinkAttributes()

chdir

Signature	hs.fs.chdir(path) -> true or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Changes the current working directory to the given path.
Parameters	path - A string containing the path to change working directory to
Returns	If successful, returns true, otherwise returns nil and an error string

currentDir

Signature	hs.fs.currentDir() -> string or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Gets the current working directory
Parameters	None
Returns	A string containing the current working directory, or if an error occured, nil and an error string

dir

Signature	hs.fs.dir(path) -> iter_fn, dir_obj, nil, dir_obj
Type	Function
Description	Creates an iterator for walking a filesystem path
Parameters	path - A string containing a directory to iterate
Returns	An iterator function A data object to pass to the iterator function or an error message as a string nil as the initial argument for the iterator (unused and unnecessary in this case, but conforms to Lua spec for iterators). Ignore this value if you are not using this function with for (see Notes). A second data object used by for to close the directory object immediately when the loop terminates. Ignore this value if you are not using this function with for (see Notes).
Notes	Unlike most functions in this module, hs.fs.dir will throw a Lua error if the supplied path cannot be iterated.

displayName

Signature	hs.fs.displayName(filepath) -> string
Type	Function
Description	Returns the display name of the file or directory at a specified path.
Parameters	filepath - The path to the file or directory
Returns	a string containing the display name of the file or directory at a specified path; returns nil if no file with the specified path exists.

fileUTI

Signature	hs.fs.fileUTI(path) -> string or nil
Type	Function
Description	Returns the Uniform Type Identifier for the file location specified.
Parameters	path - the path to the file to return the UTI for.
Returns	a string containing the Uniform Type Identifier for the file location specified or nil if an error occured

fileUTIalternate

Signature	hs.fs.fileUTIalternate(fileUTI, type) -> string
Type	Function
Description	Returns the fileUTI's equivalent form in an alternate type specification format.
Parameters	a string containing a file UTI, such as one returned by hs.fs.fileUTI. a string specifying the alternate format for the UTI. This string may be one of the following: extension - as a file extension, commonly used for platform independant file sharing when file metadata can't be guaranteed to be cross-platform compatible. Generally considered unreliable when other file type identification methods are available. mime - as a mime-type, commonly used by Internet applications like web browsers and email applications. pasteboard - as an NSPasteboard type (see hs.pasteboard). ostype - four character file type, most common pre OS X, but still used in some legacy APIs.
Returns	the file UTI in the alternate format or nil if the UTI does not have an alternate of the specified type.

getFinderComments

Signature	hs.fs.getFinderComments(path) -> string
Type	Function
Description	Get the Finder comments for the file or directory at the specified path
Parameters	path - the path to the file or directory you wish to get the comments of
Returns	a string containing the Finder comments for the file or directory specified. If no comments have been set for the file, returns an empty string. If an error occurs, most commonly an invalid path, this function will throw a Lua error.
Notes	This function uses hs.osascript to access the file comments through AppleScript

link

Signature	hs.fs.link(old, new[, symlink]) -> true or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Creates a link
Parameters	old - A string containing a path to a filesystem object to link from new - A string containing a path to create the link at symlink - An optional boolean, true to create a symlink, false to create a hard link. Defaults to false
Returns	True if the link was created, otherwise nil and an error string

lock

Signature	hs.fs.lock(filehandle, mode[, start[, length]]) -> true or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Locks a file, or part of it
Parameters	filehandle - An open file mode - A string containing either "r" for a shared read lock, or "w" for an exclusive write lock start - An optional number containing an offset into the file to start the lock at. Defaults to 0 length - An optional number containing the length of the file to lock. Defaults to the full size of the file
Returns	True if the lock was obtained successfully, otherwise nil and an error string

lockDir

Signature	hs.fs.lockDir(path, [seconds_stale]) -> lock or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Locks a directory
Parameters	path - A string containing the path to a directory seconds_stale - An optional number containing an age (in seconds) beyond which to consider an existing lock as stale. Defaults to INT_MAX (which is, broadly speaking, equivalent to "never")
Returns	If successful, a lock object, otherwise nil and an error string
Notes	This is not a low level OS feature, the lock is actually a file created in the path, called lockfile.lfs, so the directory must be writable for this function to succeed The returned lock object can be freed with lock:free() If the lock already exists and is not stale, the error string returned will be "File exists"

mkdir

Signature	hs.fs.mkdir(dirname) -> true or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Creates a new directory
Parameters	dirname - A string containing the path of a directory to create
Returns	True if the directory was created, otherwise nil and an error string

pathFromBookmark

| Signature | hs.fs.pathFromBookmark(data) -> string | nil, string | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Function | | Description | Gets the file path from a binary encoded bookmark. | | Parameters |

• data - The binary encoded Bookmark.

| | Returns |

• A string containing the path to the Bookmark URL or nil if an error occurs.
• An error message if an error occurs.

| | Notes |

• A bookmark provides a persistent reference to a file-system resource. When you resolve a bookmark, you obtain a URL to the resource’s current location. A bookmark’s association with a file-system resource (typically a file or folder) usually continues to work if the user moves or renames the resource, or if the user relaunches your app or restarts the system.
• No volumes are mounted during the resolution of the bookmark data.

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pathToAbsolute

Signature	hs.fs.pathToAbsolute(filepath) -> string
Type	Function
Description	Gets the absolute path of a given path
Parameters	filepath - Any kind of file or directory path, be it relative or not
Returns	A string containing the absolute path of filepath (i.e. one that doesn't include ., .. or symlinks) Note that symlinks will be resolved to their target file

pathToBookmark

| Signature | hs.fs.pathToBookmark(path) -> string | nil | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Function | | Description | Returns the path as binary encoded bookmark data. | | Parameters |

• path - The path to encode

| | Returns |

• Bookmark data in a binary encoded string or nil if path is invalid.

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rmdir

Signature	hs.fs.rmdir(dirname) -> true or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Removes an existing directory
Parameters	dirname - A string containing the path to a directory to remove
Returns	True if the directory was removed, otherwise nil and an error string

setFinderComments

Signature	hs.fs.setFinderComments(path, comment) -> boolean
Type	Function
Description	Set the Finder comments for the file or directory at the specified path to the comment specified
Parameters	path - the path to the file or directory you wish to set the comments of comment - a string specifying the comment to set. If this parameter is missing or is an explicit nil, the existing comment is cleared.
Returns	true on success; on error, most commonly an invalid path, this function will throw a Lua error.
Notes	This function uses hs.osascript to access the file comments through AppleScript

symlinkAttributes

Signature	hs.fs.symlinkAttributes (filepath [, aname]) -> table or string or nil,error
Type	Function
Description	Gets the attributes of a symbolic link
Parameters	filepath - A string containing the path of a link to inspect aName - An optional attribute name. If this value is specified, only the attribute requested, is returned
Returns	A table or string if the values could be found, otherwise nil and an error string.
Notes	The return values for this function are identical to those provided by hs.fs.attributes() with the following addition: the attribute name "target" is added and specifies a string containing the absolute path that the symlink points to.

tagsAdd

Signature	hs.fs.tagsAdd(filepath, tags)
Type	Function
Description	Adds one or more tags to the Finder tags of a file
Parameters	filepath - A string containing the path of a file tags - A table containing one or more strings, each containing a tag name
Returns	true if the tags were updated; throws a lua error if an error occurs updating the tags

tagsGet

Signature	hs.fs.tagsGet(filepath) -> table or nil
Type	Function
Description	Gets the Finder tags of a file
Parameters	filepath - A string containing the path of a file
Returns	A table containing the list of the file's tags, or nil if the file has no tags assigned; throws a lua error if an error accessing the file occurs

tagsRemove

Signature	hs.fs.tagsRemove(filepath, tags)
Type	Function
Description	Removes Finder tags from a file
Parameters	filepath - A string containing the path of a file tags - A table containing one or more strings, each containing a tag name
Returns	true if the tags were updated; throws a lua error if an error occurs updating the tags

tagsSet

Signature	hs.fs.tagsSet(filepath, tags)
Type	Function
Description	Sets the Finder tags of a file, removing any that are already set
Parameters	filepath - A string containing the path of a file tags - A table containing zero or more strings, each containing a tag name
Returns	true if the tags were set; throws a lua error if an error occurs setting the new tags

temporaryDirectory

Signature	hs.fs.temporaryDirectory() -> string
Type	Function
Description	Returns the path of the temporary directory for the current user.
Parameters	None
Returns	The path to the system designated temporary directory for the current user.

touch

Signature	hs.fs.touch(filepath [, atime [, mtime]]) -> true or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Updates the access and modification times of a file
Parameters	filepath - A string containing the path of a file to touch atime - An optional number containing the new access time of the file to set (as seconds since the Epoch). Defaults to now mtime - An optional number containing the new modification time of the file to set (as seconds since the Epoch). Defaults to the value of atime
Returns	True if the operation was successful, otherwise nil and an error string

unlock

Signature	hs.fs.unlock(filehandle[, start[, length]]) -> true or (nil,error)
Type	Function
Description	Unlocks a file or a part of it.
Parameters	filehandle - An open file start - An optional number containing an offset from the start of the file, to unlock. Defaults to 0 length - An optional number containing the length of file to unlock. Defaults to the full size of the file
Returns	True if the unlock succeeded, otherwise nil and an error string

urlFromPath

| Signature | hs.fs.urlFromPath(path) -> string | nil | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Function | | Description | Returns the encoded URL from a path. | | Parameters |

• path - The path

| | Returns |

• A string or nil if path is invalid.

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