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The table at the end of this vignette can be used as a translation aid between these three methods.</p> <p><strong>fs</strong> functions smooth over some of the idiosyncrasies of file handling with base R functions:</p> <ul> <li><p>Vectorization. All <strong>fs</strong> functions are vectorized, accepting multiple paths as input. Base functions are inconsistently vectorized.</p></li> <li><p>Predictable return values that always convey a path. All <strong>fs</strong> functions return a character vector of paths, a named integer or a logical vector, where the names give the paths. Base return values are more varied: they are often logical or contain error codes which require downstream processing.</p></li> <li><p>Explicit failure. If <strong>fs</strong> operations fail, they throw an error. Base functions tend to generate a warning and a system dependent error code. This makes it easy to miss a failure.</p></li> <li><p>UTF-8 all the things. <strong>fs</strong> functions always convert input paths to UTF-8 and return results as UTF-8. This gives you path encoding consistency across OSes. Base functions rely on the native system encoding.</p></li> <li><p>Naming convention. <strong>fs</strong> functions use a consistent naming convention. Because base R’s functions were gradually added over time there are a number of different conventions used (e.g. <code>path.expand()</code> vs <code>normalizePath()</code>; <code>Sys.chmod()</code> vs <code>file.access()</code>).</p></li> </ul> <div id="directory-functions" class="section level2"> <h2>Directory functions</h2> <table> <colgroup> <col width="33%" /> <col width="33%" /> <col width="33%" /> </colgroup> <thead> <tr class="header"> <th>fs</th> <th>base</th> <th>shell</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>dir_ls("path")</code></td> <td><code>list.files("path")</code></td> <td><code>ls path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>dir_info("path")</code></td> <td><code>do.call(rbind, lapply(list.files("path"), file.info))</code></td> <td><code>ls -al path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>dir_copy("path", "new-path")</code></td> <td><code>dir.create("new-path"); file.copy("path", "new-path", recursive=TRUE)</code></td> <td><code>cp path new-path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>dir_create("path")</code></td> <td><code>dir.create("path")</code></td> <td><code>mkdir path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>dir_delete("path")</code></td> <td><code>unlink("path", recursive = TRUE)</code></td> <td><code>rm -rf path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>dir_exists("path")</code></td> <td><code>dir.exists("path")</code></td> <td><code>if [ -d "path" ]; then ... ; fi</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><del><code>dir_move()</code></del> (see <code>file_move</code>)</td> <td><code>file.rename("path", "new-path")</code></td> <td><code>mv path new-path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>dir_map("path", fun)</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> <td><code>for file in $(ls path); do ...; done</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>dir_tree("path")</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> <td><code>tree path</code></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div id="file-functions" class="section level2"> <h2>File functions</h2> <table> <colgroup> <col width="33%" /> <col width="33%" /> <col width="33%" /> </colgroup> <thead> <tr class="header"> <th>fs</th> <th>base</th> <th>shell</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>file_chmod("path", "mode")</code></td> <td><code>Sys.chmod("path", "mode")</code></td> <td><code>chmod mode path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>file_chown("path", "user_id", "group_id")</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> <td><code>chown options path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>file_copy("path", "new-path")</code></td> <td><code>file.copy("path", "new-path")</code></td> <td><code>cp path new-path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>file_create("new-path")</code></td> <td><code>file.create("new-path")</code></td> <td><code>touch new-path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>file_delete("path")</code></td> <td><code>unlink("path")</code></td> <td><code>rm path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>file_exists("path")</code></td> <td><code>file.exists("path")</code></td> <td><code>if [ -f "path" ]; then ... ; fi</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>file_info("path")</code></td> <td><code>file.info("path")</code></td> <td><code>ls -al path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>file_move("path", "new-path")</code></td> <td><code>file.rename("path", "new-path")</code></td> <td><code>mv path new-path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>file_show("path")</code></td> <td><code>browseURL("path")</code></td> <td><code>open path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>file_touch()</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> <td><code>touch path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>file_temp()</code></td> <td><code>tempfile()</code></td> <td><code>mktemp</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>file_test()</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> <td><code>if [ -d "path" ]; then ...; fi</code></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div id="path-functions" class="section level2"> <h2>Path functions</h2> <table> <colgroup> <col width="33%" /> <col width="33%" /> <col width="33%" /> </colgroup> <thead> <tr class="header"> <th>fs</th> <th>base</th> <th>shell</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>path("top_dir", "nested_dir", "file", ext = "ext")</code></td> <td><code>file.path("top_dir", "nested_dir", "file.ext")</code></td> <td><code>top_dir/nested_dir/file.ext</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>path_temp()</code>, <code>path_temp("path")</code></td> <td><code>tempdir()</code>, <code>file.path(tempdir(), "path")</code></td> <td><code>mktemp -d</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>path_expand("~/path")</code></td> <td><code>path.expand()</code></td> <td><code>realpath -m -s ~/path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>path_dir("path")</code></td> <td><code>dirname("path")</code></td> <td><code>dirname path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>path_file("path")</code></td> <td><code>basename("path")</code></td> <td><code>basename path</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>path_home()</code></td> <td><code>path.expand("~")</code></td> <td><code>$HOME</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>path_package("pkgname", "dir", "file")</code></td> <td><code>system.file("dir", "file", package = "pkgname")</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>path_norm("path")</code></td> <td><code>normalizePath()</code></td> <td><code>realpath</code></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>path_real("path")</code></td> <td><code>normalizePath(mustWork = TRUE)</code></td> <td><code>realpath</code></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>path_rel("path/foo", "path/bar")</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>path_common(c("path/foo", "path/bar", "path/baz"))</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>path_ext_remove("path")</code></td> <td><code>sub("\\.[a-zA-Z0-9]*$", "", "path")</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><code>path_ext_set("path", "new_ext")</code></td> <td><code>sub("\\.[a-zA-Z0-9]*$", "new_ext", "path")</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><code>path_sanitize("path")</code></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> <td><em>No direct equivalent</em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <!-- code folding --> <!-- dynamically load mathjax for compatibility with self-contained --> <script> (function () { var script = document.createElement("script"); 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