Filesystem

This section contains documentation of functions and properties that allow you to check the existance of / delete a file, create / enumerate directories, and in other ways interact with and/or manipulate the filesystem.

If you wish to specifically read and write files, you should look at the file datastream class.

Functions

directory_create

Creates a directory if it doesn't already exist.

bool directory_create(string directory);

Arguments:

• string directory: path to the directory to create (can be nested, relative or absolute).

Returns:

true if the directory was successfully created or already exists, false otherwise.

Example:

void main() {
	if (directory_exists("test")) {
		alert("Info", "The test directory already exists; nothing to do");
		exit();
	}
	if (directory_create("test")) {
		alert("Info", "Directory created. Deleting...");
		alert("Info", directory_delete("test") ? "Success": "Fail");
	}
	else
		alert("Error", "Couldn't create the directory.");
}

directory_delete

Deletes a directory.

bool directory_delete(string directory);

Arguments:

• string directory: the directory to delete.

Returns:

bool: true if the directory was successfully deleted, false otherwise.

directory_exists

Determine if a directory exists or not.

bool directory_exists(string directory);

Arguments:

• string directory: the directory whose existence will be checked (can be a relative or absolute path).

Returns:

true if the directory exists, false otherwise.

Example:

void main() {
	alert("Directory exists", directory_exists("test") ? "There is a test folder in the current directory" : "There is not a test folder in the current directory");
}

file_copy

Coppies a file from one location to another.

bool file_copy(string source_filename, string destination_filename);

Arguments:

• string source_filename: the path/name of the file to be coppied.
• string destination_filename: the path (including filename) to copy the file to.

Returns:

bool: true if the file was successfully coppied, false otherwise.

file_delete

Deletes a file.

bool file_delete(string filename);

Arguments:

• string filename: the name of the file to delete.

Returns:

bool: true if the file was successfully deleted, false otherwise.

file_exists

Check for the existence of a particular file.

bool file_exists(string file_path);

Arguments:

• string file_path: the path to the file to query.

Returns:

bool: true if the file exists, false otherwise.

file_get_date_created

Get a datetime object representing the creation date of a particular file.

datetime file_get_date_created(string filename);

Arguments:

• string filename; the name of the file to check.

Returns:

datetime: an initialized datetime object, with all its fields set to the creation date of the file.

Remarks:

The date returned is in UTC, not your local timezone.

Example:

void main() {
	datetime dt = file_get_date_created("file_get_date_created.nvgt");
	alert("file_get_date_created.nvgt was created on", dt.year + "-" + dt.month + "-" + dt.day + ", " + dt.hour +":" + dt.minute + ":" + dt.second);
}

file_get_date_modified

Get a datetime object representing the modification date of a particular file.

datetime file_get_date_modified(string filename);

Arguments:

• string filename; the name of the file to check.

Returns:

datetime: an initialized datetime object, with all its fields set to the modification date of the file.

Remarks:

The date returned is in UTC, not your local timezone.

Example:

void main() {
	datetime dt = file_get_date_modified("file_get_date_modified.nvgt");
	alert("file_get_date_modified.nvgt was modified on", dt.year + "-" + dt.month + "-" + dt.day + ", " + dt.hour +":" + dt.minute + ":" + dt.second);
}

file_get_size

Get the size of a file (in bytes).

int64 file_get_size(string filename);

Arguments:

• string filename: the name/path of the file to get the size of.

Returns:

int64: the size of the file (in bytes).

Example:

void main() {
	alert("file_get.size.nvgt is", file_get_size("file_get_size.nvgt") + " bytes");
}

glob

Return a list of files and directories on the filesystem given a path glob.

string[]@ glob(string path_pattern, glob_options options = GLOB_DEFAULT);

Arguments:

• string path_pattern: The pattern to match files and directories with (Unix shell like, see remarks).

• glob_options options: A bitwise of glob_options enum constants that influence the behavior of this function (see remarks).

Returns:

string[]@: A list of all matching files and directories that match the given path pattern, an empty array on no matches or failure.

Remarks:

This function provides for one of the easiest ways to enumerate the filesystem in NVGT, particularly because the path patterns provided can actually cause semi-recursive directory searches. The search starts at the current working directory unless an absolute path is given.

The glob patterns have simple rules:

• path separators must be matched exactly, * will not cause a recursive lookup

• * matches any sequence of characters

• ? matches any single character

• [set] matches any characters between the brackets

• [!set] matches any characters that are not listed between the brackets

• \*, \[, \] etc exactly match a special character usually used as part of the glob expression

There is no guarantee that the items returned will appear in any particular order in the array.

The following glob_options constance are defined:

• GLOB_DEFAULT: the default options

• GLOB_IGNORE_HIDDEN: do not match when directory entries begin with a .

• GLOB_FOLLOW_SYMLINKS: traverse even across symbolic links if the given pattern demands it

• GLOB_CASELESS: match case insensitively

Example:

void main() {
	// List all .nvgt files within the filesystem documentation directory.
	string[]@ items = glob("../*/*.nvgt");
	alert("files found", string(items));
}

Global Properties

DIRECTORY_APPDATA

Property that returns the user's roaming application directory, which is usually where game data can be written to.

const string DIRECTORY_APPDATA;

remarks:

A slash character is already appended to the directory returned by this property.

This function may return different values depending on the operating system the application is being run on.

• On Windows, usually C:\Users%username%\appdata\roaming/.

• on macOS, usually ~/Library/Preferences/.

• on Linux, usually ~/.config/.

In any case, the directory returned should be writable.

Example:

void main() {
	alert("example", "data for the game could be stored at " + DIRECTORY_APPDATA + "my_game/");
}