Ocamlnet 3 Reference Manual : Netfs

# Module Netfs

    module Netfs: sig .. end

Class type `stream_fs` for filesystems with stream access to files

The class type `Netfs.stream_fs` is an abstraction for both kernel-level and user-level filesystems. It is used as parameter for algorithms (like globbing) that operate on filesystems but do not want to assume any particular filesystem. Only stream access is provided (no seek).

File paths:

The filesystem supports hierarchical file names. File paths use Unix conventions, i.e.

- `/` is the root
- Path components are separated by slashes. Several consecutive slashes are allowed but mean the same as a single slash.
- `.` is the same directory
- `..` is the parent directory

All paths need to be absolute (i.e. start with `/`).

There can be additional constraints on paths:

- Character encoding restriction: A certain ASCII-compatible character encoding is assumed (including UTF-8)
- Character exclusion: Certain characters may be excluded

Implementations may impose more constraints that cannot be expressed here (case insensitivity, path length, exclusion of special names etc.).

Virtuality:

There is no assumption that `/` is the real root of the local filesystem. It can actually be anywhere - a local subdirectory, or a remote directory, or a fictive root. There needs not to be any protection against "running beyond root", e.g. with the path `/..`.

This class type also supports remote filesystems, and thus there is no concept of file handle (because this would exclude a number of implementations).

Errors:

Errors should generally be indicated by raising `Unix_error`. For many error codes the interpretation is already given by POSIX. Here are some more special cases:

- `EINVAL`: should also be used for invalid paths, or when a flag cannot be supported (and it is non-ignorable)
- `ENOSYS`: should also be used if an operation is generally unavailable

In case of hard errors (like socket errors when communicating with the remote server) there is no need to stick to `Unix_error`, though.

Subtyping:

The class type `Netfs.stream_fs` is subtypable, and subtypes can add more features by:

- adding more methods
- adding more flags to existing methods

Omitted:

Real filesystems usually provide a lot more features than what is represented here, such as:

- Access control and file permissions
- Metadata like timestamps
- Random access to files

This definition here is intentionally minimalistic. In the future this class type will be extended, and more more common filesystem features will be covered. See `Netfs.empty_fs` for a way how to ensure that your definition of a `stream_fs` can still be built after `stream_fs` has been extended.

## The class type `stream_fs`

    type read_flag = [ `Binary | `Dummy | `Skip of int64 | `Streaming ]

    type read_file_flag = [ `Binary | `Dummy ]

    type write_flag = [ `Binary | `Create | `Dummy | `Exclusive | `Streaming | `Truncate ]

    type write_file_flag = [ `Binary | `Create | `Dummy | `Exclusive | `Link | `Truncate ]

    type write_common = [ `Binary | `Create | `Dummy | `Exclusive | `Truncate ]

The intersection of `write_flag` and `write_file_flag`

    type size_flag = [ `Dummy ]

    type test_flag = [ `Dummy | `Link ]

    type remove_flag = [ `Dummy | `Recursive ]

    type rename_flag = [ `Dummy ]

    type symlink_flag = [ `Dummy ]

    type readdir_flag = [ `Dummy ]

    type readlink_flag = [ `Dummy ]

    type mkdir_flag = [ `Dummy | `Nonexcl | `Path ]

    type rmdir_flag = [ `Dummy ]

    type copy_flag = [ `Dummy ]

Note ``Dummy`: this flag is always ignored. There are two reasons for having it:

- Ocaml does not allow empty variants
- it is sometimes convenient to have it (e.g. in: `if <condition> then `Create else `Dummy`)

    type test_type = [ `D | `E | `F | `H | `N | `R | `S | `W | `X ]

Tests:

- ``N`: the file name exists
- ``E`: the file exists
- ``D`: the file exists and is a directory
- ``F`: the file exists and is regular
- ``H`: the file exists and is a symlink (possibly to a non-existing target)
- ``R`: the file exists and is readable
- ``W`: the file exists and is writable
- ``X`: the file exists and is executable
- ``S`: the file exists and is non-empty

    class type local_file = object .. end

    class type stream_fs = object .. end

    class empty_fs : string -> stream_fs

This is a class where all methods fail with `ENOSYS`.

    val local_fs : ?encoding:Netconversion.encoding ->
           ?root:string -> ?enable_relative_paths:bool -> unit -> stream_fs

`local_fs()`: Returns a filesystem object for the local filesystem.

- `encoding`: Specifies the character encoding of paths. The default is system-dependent.
- `root`: the root of the returned object is the directory `root` of the local filesystem. If omitted, the root is the root of the local filesystem (i.e. / for Unix, and see comments for Windows below). Use `root="."` to make the current working directory the root. Note that "." like other relative paths are interpreted at the time when the access method is executed.
- `enable_relative_paths`: Normally, only absolute paths can be passed to the access methods like `read`. By setting this option to `true` one can also enable relative paths. These are taken relative to the working directory, and not relative to `root`. Relative names are off by default because there is usually no counterpart in network filesystems.

## OS Notes

Unix in general: There is no notion of character encoding of paths. Paths are just bytes. Because of this, the default encoding is `None`. If a different encoding is passed to `local_fs`, these bytes are just interpreted in this encoding. There is no conversion.

For desktop programs, though, usually the character encoding of the locale is taken for filenames. You can get this by passing

        let encoding =
          Netconversion.user_encoding()

as `encoding` argument.
Windows: If the `root` argument is not passed to `local_fs` it is possible to access the whole filesystem:

- Paths starting with drive letters like `c:/` are also considered as absolute
- Additionally, paths starting with slashes like `/c:/` mean the same
- UNC paths starting with two slashes like `//hostname` are supported

However, when a `root` directory is passed, these additional notations are not possible anymore - paths must start with `/`, and there is neither support for drive letters nor for UNC paths.

The `encoding` arg defaults to current ANSI codepage, and it is not supported to request a different encoding. (The difficulty is that the Win32 bindings of the relevant OS functions always assume the ANSI encoding.)

There is no support for backslashes as path separators (such paths will be rejected), for better compatibility with other platforms.

## Other impementations of `stream_fs`

List:

- `Http_fs` allows one to access HTTP-based filesystems
- `Ftp_fs` allows on to access filesystems via FTP
- `Shell_fs` allows one to access filesystems by executing shell commands. This works locally and via ssh.

There are even some implementations outside Ocamlnet:

- Webdav provides an extension of `Http_fs` for the full WebDAV set of filesystem operations

## Algorithms

    val copy : ?replace:bool ->
           ?streaming:bool ->
           #stream_fs -> string -> #stream_fs -> string -> unit

`copy orig_fs orig_name dest_fs dest_name`: Copies the file `orig_name` from `orig_fs` to the file `dest_name` in `dest_fs`. By default, the destination file is truncated and overwritten if it already exists.

If `orig_fs` and `dest_fs` are the same object, the `copy` method is called to perform the operation. Otherwise, the data is read chunk by chunk from the file in `orig_fs` and then written to the destination file in `dest_fs`.

Symlinks are resolved, and the linked file is copied, not the link as such.

The copy does not preserve ownerships, file permissions, or timestamps. (The `stream_fs` object does not represent these.) There is no protection against copying an object to itself.

- `replace`: If set, the destination file is removed and created again if it already exists
- `streaming`: use streaming mode for reading and writing files

    val copy_into : ?replace:bool ->
           ?subst:(int -> string) ->
           ?streaming:bool ->
           #stream_fs -> string -> #stream_fs -> string -> unit

`copy_into orig_fs orig_name dest_fs dest_name`: Like `copy`, but this version also supports recursive copies. The `dest_name` must be an existing directory, and the file or tree at `orig_name` is copied into it.

Symlinks are copied as symlinks.

If `replace` and the destination file/directory already exists, it is deleted before doing the copy.

- `subst`: See `Netfs.convert_path`
- `streaming`: use streaming mode for reading and writing files

    type file_kind = [ `Directory | `None | `Other | `Regular | `Symlink ]

    val iter : pre:(string -> file_kind -> file_kind -> unit) ->
           ?post:(string -> unit) -> #stream_fs -> string -> unit

`iter pre fs start`: Iterates over the file hierarchy at `start`. The function `pre` is called for every filename. The filenames passed to `pre` are relative to `start`. The `start` must be a directory.

For directories, the `pre` function is called for the directory before it is called for the members of the directories. The function `post` can additionally be passed. It is only called for directories, but after the members.

`pre` is called as `pre rk lk` where `rk` is the file kind after following symlinks and `lk` the file kind without following symlinks (the link itself).

Example: `iter pre fs "/foo"` would call

- `pre "dir" `Directory `Directory` (meaning the directory "/foo/dir")
- `pre "dir/file1" `File `File`
- `pre "dir/file2" `File `Symlink`
- `post "dir"`

Note: symlinks to non-existing files are reported as `pre name `None `Symlink`.

    val convert_path : ?subst:(int -> string) ->
           #stream_fs -> #stream_fs -> string -> string

`convert_path oldfs newfs oldpath`: The encoding of `oldpath` (which is assumed to reside in `oldfs`) is converted to the encoding of `newfs` and returned.

It is possible that the conversion is not possible, and the function `subst` is then called with the problematic code point as argument (in the encoding of `oldfs`). The default `subst` function just raises `Netconversion.Cannot_represent`.

If one of the filesystem objects does not specify an encoding, the file name is not converted, but simply returned as-is. This may result in errors when `newfs` has an encoding while `oldfs` does not have one because the file name might use byte representations that are illegal in `newfs`.