R: File Manipulation

files {base} | R Documentation

## File Manipulation

### Description

These functions provide a low-level interface to the computer's file system.

### Usage

    file.create(..., showWarnings = TRUE)
    file.exists(...)
    file.remove(...)
    file.rename(from, to)
    file.append(file1, file2)
    file.copy(from, to, overwrite = recursive, recursive = FALSE,
              copy.mode = TRUE)
    file.symlink(from, to)
    file.link(from, to)

### Arguments

`..., file1, file2` | character vectors, containing file names or paths.
`from, to` | character vectors, containing file names or paths. For `file.copy` and `file.symlink` `to` can alternatively be the path to a single existing directory.
`overwrite` | logical; should existing destination files be overwritten?
`showWarnings` | logical; should the warnings on failure be shown?
`recursive` | logical. If `to` is a directory, should directories in `from` be copied (and their contents)?
`copy.mode` | logical: should file permission bits be copied where possible? This applies to both files and directories.

### Details

The `...` arguments are concatenated to form one character string: you can specify the files separately or as one vector. All of these functions expand path names: see `path.expand`.

`file.create` creates files with the given names if they do not already exist and truncates them if they do. They are created with the maximal read/write permissions allowed by the ‘umask’ setting (where relevant). By default a warning is given (with the reason) if the operation fails.

`file.exists` returns a logical vector indicating whether the files named by its argument exist. (Here ‘exists’ is in the sense of the system's `stat` call: a file will be reported as existing only if you have the permissions needed by `stat`. Existence can also be checked by `file.access`, which might use different permissions and so obtain a different result. Note that the existence of a file does not imply that it is readable: for that use `file.access`.) What constitutes a ‘file’ is system-dependent, but should include directories. (However, directory names must not include a trailing backslash or slash on Windows.) Note that if the file is a symbolic link on a Unix-alike, the result indicates if the link points to an actual file, not just if the link exists.

`file.remove` attempts to remove the files named in its argument. On most Unix platforms ‘file’ includes empty directories, symbolic links, fifos and sockets. On Windows, ‘file’ means a regular file and not, say, an empty directory.

`file.rename` attempts to rename files (and `from` and `to` must be of the same length). Where file permissions allow this will overwrite an existing element of `to`. This is subject to the limitations of the OS's corresponding system call (see something like `man 2 rename` on a Unix-alike): in particular in the interpretation of ‘file’: most platforms will not rename files across file systems. (On Windows, `file.rename` nowadays works across volumes for files but not directories.)

`file.append` attempts to append the files named by its second argument to those named by its first. The R subscript recycling rule is used to align names given in vectors of different lengths.

`file.copy` works in a similar way to `file.append` but with the arguments in the natural order for copying. Copying to existing destination files is skipped unless `overwrite = TRUE`. The `to` argument can specify a single existing directory. If `copy.mode = TRUE` (added in R 2.13.0) file read/write/execute permissions are copied where possible, restricted by ‘umask’. Other security attributes such as ACLs are not copied. On a POSIX filesystem the targets of symbolic links will be copied rather than the links themselves.

`file.symlink` and `file.link` make symbolic and hard links on those file systems which support them. For `file.symlink` the `to` argument can specify a single existing directory. (Unix and Mac OS X native filesystems support both. Windows has hard links to files on NTFS file systems and concepts related to symbolic links on recent versions: see the section below on the Windows version of this help page. What happens on a FAT or SMB-mounted file system is OS-specific.)

### Value

These functions return a logical vector indicating which operation succeeded for each of the files attempted. Using a missing value for a file or path name will always be regarded as a failure.

If `showWarnings = TRUE`, `file.create` will give a warning for an unexpected failure.

### Case-insensitive file systems

Case-insensitive file systems are the norm on Windows and Mac OS X, but can be found on all OSes (for example a FAT-formatted USB drive is probably case-insensitive).

These functions will most likely match existing files regardless of case on such file systems: however this is an OS function and it is possible that file names might be mapped to upper or lower case.

### Author(s)

Ross Ihaka, Brian Ripley

### See Also

`file.info`, `file.access`, `file.path`, `file.show`, `list.files`, `unlink`, `basename`, `path.expand`.

`dir.create`.

`Sys.glob` to expand wildcards in file specifications.

`file_test`, `Sys.readlink`.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link for the concepts of links and their limitations.

### Examples

    cat("file A\n", file="A")
    cat("file B\n", file="B")
    file.append("A", "B")
    file.create("A")
    file.append("A", rep("B", 10))
    if(interactive()) file.show("A")
    file.copy("A", "C")
    dir.create("tmp")
    file.copy(c("A", "B"), "tmp")
    list.files("tmp")
    setwd("tmp")
    file.remove("B")
    file.symlink(file.path("..", c("A", "B")), ".")
    setwd("..")
    unlink("tmp", recursive=TRUE)
    file.remove("A", "B", "C")

[Package base version 2.15.1 Index]