# file

###
Module

file

###
Module Summary

File interface module.

###
Description

This module provides an interface to the file system.

Warning

File operations are only guaranteed to appear atomic when going through the same file server. A NIF or other OS process may observe intermediate steps on certain operations on some operating systems, eg. renaming an existing file on Windows, or write_file_info/2 on any OS at the time of writing.

Regarding filename encoding, the Erlang VM can operate in two modes. The current mode can be queried using function native_name_encoding/0. It returns latin1 or utf8.

In latin1 mode, the Erlang VM does not change the encoding of filenames. In utf8 mode, filenames can contain Unicode characters greater than 255 and the VM converts filenames back and forth to the native filename encoding (usually UTF-8, but UTF-16 on Windows).

The default mode depends on the operating system. Windows, MacOS X and Android enforce consistent filename encoding and therefore the VM uses utf8 mode.

On operating systems with transparent naming (for example, all Unix systems except MacOS X), default is utf8 if the terminal supports UTF-8, otherwise latin1. The default can be overridden using +fnl (to force latin1 mode) or +fnu (to force utf8 mode) when starting erl.

On operating systems with transparent naming, files can be inconsistently named, for example, some files are encoded in UTF-8 while others are encoded in ISO Latin-1. The concept of raw filenames is introduced to handle file systems with inconsistent naming when running in utf8 mode.

A raw filename is a filename specified as a binary. The Erlang VM does not translate a filename specified as a binary on systems with transparent naming.

When running in utf8 mode, functions list_dir/1 and read_link/1 never return raw filenames. To return all filenames including raw filenames, use functions list_dir_all/1 and read_link_all/1.

See also section Notes About Raw Filenames in the STDLIB User's Guide.

Note

File operations used to accept filenames containing null characters (integer value zero). This caused the name to be truncated and in some cases arguments to primitive operations to be mixed up. Filenames containing null characters inside the filename are now rejected and will cause primitive file operations fail.

###
Data Types

####
deep_list() = [char() | atom() | deep_list()]

####
fd()

A file descriptor representing a file opened in raw mode.

####
filename() = string()

See also the documentation of the name_all() type.

####
filename_all() = string() | binary()

See also the documentation of the name_all() type.

####
io_device() = pid() | fd()

As returned by open/2; pid() is a process handling I/O-protocols.

####
name() = string() | atom() | deep_list()

If VM is in Unicode filename mode, string() and char() are allowed to be > 255. See also the documentation of the name_all() type.

####
name_all() =
string() | atom() | deep_list() | (RawFilename :: binary())

If VM is in Unicode filename mode, characters are allowed to be > 255. RawFilename is a filename not subject to Unicode translation, meaning that it can contain characters not conforming to the Unicode encoding expected from the file system (that is, non-UTF-8 characters although the VM is started in Unicode filename mode). Null characters (integer value zero) are not allowed in filenames (not even at the end).

####
posix() =
eacces | eagain | ebadf | ebadmsg | ebusy | edeadlk |
edeadlock | edquot | eexist | efault | efbig | eftype |
eintr | einval | eio | eisdir | eloop | emfile | emlink |
emultihop | enametoolong | enfile | enobufs | enodev |
enolck | enolink | enoent | enomem | enospc | enosr | enostr |
enosys | enotblk | enotdir | enotsup | enxio | eopnotsupp |
eoverflow | eperm | epipe | erange | erofs | espipe | esrch |
estale | etxtbsy | exdev

An atom that is named from the POSIX error codes used in Unix, and in the runtime libraries of most C compilers.

####
date_time() = calendar:datetime()

Must denote a valid date and time.

####
file_info() =
#file_info{size = integer() >= 0 | undefined,
type =
device | directory | other | regular |
symlink | undefined,
access =
read | write | read_write | none | undefined,
atime =
file:date_time() |
integer() >= 0 |
undefined,
mtime =
file:date_time() |
integer() >= 0 |
undefined,
ctime =
file:date_time() |
integer() >= 0 |
undefined,
mode = integer() >= 0 | undefined,
links = integer() >= 0 | undefined,
major_device = integer() >= 0 | undefined,
minor_device = integer() >= 0 | undefined,
inode = integer() >= 0 | undefined,
uid = integer() >= 0 | undefined,
gid = integer() >= 0 | undefined}

####
location() =
integer() |
{bof, Offset :: integer()} |
{cur, Offset :: integer()} |
{eof, Offset :: integer()} |
bof | cur | eof

####
mode() =
read | write | append | exclusive | raw | binary |
{delayed_write,
Size :: integer() >= 0,
Delay :: integer() >= 0} |
delayed_write |
{read_ahead, Size :: integer() >= 1} |
read_ahead | compressed |
{encoding, unicode:encoding()} |
sync

####
file_info_option() =
{time, local} | {time, universal} | {time, posix} | raw

###
Exports

####
advise(IoDevice, Offset, Length, Advise) -> ok | {error, Reason}
OTP R14B

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
Offset = Length = integer()
Advise = posix_file_advise()
Reason = posix() | badarg
posix_file_advise() =
normal | sequential | random | no_reuse | will_need |
dont_need

advise/4 can be used to announce an intention to access file data in a specific pattern in the future, thus allowing the operating system to perform appropriate optimizations.

On some platforms, this function might have no effect.

####
allocate(File, Offset, Length) -> ok | {error, posix()}
OTP R16B

### Types

File = io_device()
Offset = Length = integer() >= 0

allocate/3 can be used to preallocate space for a file.

This function only succeeds in platforms that provide this feature.

####
change_group(Filename, Gid) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Gid = integer()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Changes group of a file. See write_file_info/2.

####
change_mode(Filename, Mode) -> ok | {error, Reason}
OTP R14B

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Mode = integer()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Changes permissions of a file. See write_file_info/2.

####
change_owner(Filename, Uid) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Uid = integer()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Changes owner of a file. See write_file_info/2.

####
change_owner(Filename, Uid, Gid) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Uid = Gid = integer()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Changes owner and group of a file. See write_file_info/2.

####
change_time(Filename, Mtime) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Mtime = date_time()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Changes the modification and access times of a file. See write_file_info/2.

####
change_time(Filename, Atime, Mtime) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Atime = Mtime = date_time()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Changes the modification and last access times of a file. See write_file_info/2.

####
close(IoDevice) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Closes the file referenced by IoDevice. It mostly returns ok, except for some severe errors such as out of memory.

Notice that if option delayed_write was used when opening the file, close/1 can return an old write error and not even try to close the file. See open/2.

####
consult(Filename) -> {ok, Terms} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Terms = [term()]
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

Reads Erlang terms, separated by '.', from Filename. Returns one of the following:

{ok, Terms}

  The file was successfully read.

{error, atom()}

  An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. For a list of typical error codes, see open/2.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}

  An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang terms in the file. To convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error, use format_error/1.

Example:

    f.txt:  {person, "kalle", 25}.
            {person, "pelle", 30}.

    1> file:consult("f.txt").
    {ok,[{person,"kalle",25},{person,"pelle",30}]}

The encoding of Filename can be set by a comment, as described in epp(3).

####
copy(Source, Destination) -> {ok, BytesCopied} | {error, Reason}

####
copy(Source, Destination, ByteCount) ->
{ok, BytesCopied} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Source = Destination = io_device() | Filename | {Filename, Modes}
Filename = name_all()
Modes = [mode()]
ByteCount = integer() >= 0 | infinity
BytesCopied = integer() >= 0
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Copies ByteCount bytes from Source to Destination. Source and Destination refer to either filenames or IO devices from, for example, open/2. ByteCount defaults to infinity, denoting an infinite number of bytes.

Argument Modes is a list of possible modes, see open/2, and defaults to [].

If both Source and Destination refer to filenames, the files are opened with [read, binary] and [write, binary] prepended to their mode lists, respectively, to optimize the copy.

If Source refers to a filename, it is opened with read mode prepended to the mode list before the copy, and closed when done.

If Destination refers to a filename, it is opened with write mode prepended to the mode list before the copy, and closed when done.

Returns {ok, BytesCopied}, where BytesCopied is the number of bytes that was copied, which can be less than ByteCount if end of file was encountered on the source. If the operation fails, {error, Reason} is returned.

Typical error reasons: as for open/2 if a file had to be opened, and as for read/2 and write/2.

####
datasync(IoDevice) -> ok | {error, Reason}
OTP R14B

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Ensures that any buffers kept by the operating system (not by the Erlang runtime system) are written to disk. In many ways it resembles fsync but it does not update some of the metadata of the file, such as the access time. On some platforms this function has no effect.

Applications that access databases or log files often write a tiny data fragment (for example, one line in a log file) and then call fsync() immediately to ensure that the written data is physically stored on the hard disk. Unfortunately, fsync() always initiates two write operations: one for the newly written data and another one to update the modification time stored in the inode. If the modification time is not a part of the transaction concept, fdatasync() can be used to avoid unnecessary inode disk write operations.

Available only in some POSIX systems, this call results in a call to fsync(), or has no effect in systems not providing the fdatasync() syscall.

####
del_dir(Dir) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Dir = name_all()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Tries to delete directory Dir. The directory must be empty before it can be deleted. Returns ok if successful.

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing search or write permissions for the parent directories of Dir.

eexist

  The directory is not empty.

enoent

  The directory does not exist.

enotdir

  A component of Dir is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

einval

  Attempt to delete the current directory. On some platforms, eacces is returned instead.

####
del_dir_r(File) -> ok | {error, Reason}
OTP 23.0

### Types

File = name_all()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Deletes file or directory File. If File is a directory, its contents is first recursively deleted. Returns:

ok

  The operation completed without errors.

{error, posix()}

  An error occurred when accessing or deleting File. If some file or directory under File could not be deleted, File cannot be deleted as it is non-empty, and {error, eexist} is returned.

####
delete(Filename) -> ok | {error, Reason}

####
delete(Filename, Opts) -> ok | {error, Reason}
OTP 24.0

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Opts = [delete_option()]
Reason = posix() | badarg
delete_option() = raw

Tries to delete file Filename. Returns ok if successful.

If the option raw is set, the file server is not called. This can be useful in particular during the early boot stage when the file server is not yet registered, to still be able to delete local files.

Typical error reasons:

enoent

  The file does not exist.

eacces

  Missing permission for the file or one of its parents.

eperm

  The file is a directory and the user is not superuser.

enotdir

  A component of the filename is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

einval

  Filename has an improper type, such as tuple.

Warning

In a future release, a bad type for argument Filename will probably generate an exception.

####
eval(Filename) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

Reads and evaluates Erlang expressions, separated by '.' (or ',', a sequence of expressions is also an expression) from Filename. The result of the evaluation is not returned; any expression sequence in the file must be there for its side effect. Returns one of the following:

ok

  The file was read and evaluated.

{error, atom()}

  An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. For a list of typical error codes, see open/2.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}

  An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang expressions in the file. To convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error, use format_error/1.

The encoding of Filename can be set by a comment, as described in epp(3).

####
eval(Filename, Bindings) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Bindings = erl_eval:binding_struct()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

The same as eval/1, but the variable bindings Bindings are used in the evaluation. For information about the variable bindings, see erl_eval(3).

####
format_error(Reason) -> Chars

### Types

Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}
Chars = string()

Given the error reason returned by any function in this module, returns a descriptive string of the error in English.

####
get_cwd() -> {ok, Dir} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Dir = filename()
Reason = posix()

Returns {ok, Dir}, where Dir is the current working directory of the file server.

Note

In rare circumstances, this function can fail on Unix. It can occur if read permission does not exist for the parent directories of the current directory.

A typical error reason:

eacces

  Missing read permission for one of the parents of the current directory.

####
get_cwd(Drive) -> {ok, Dir} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Drive = string()
Dir = filename()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Returns {ok, Dir} or {error, Reason}, where Dir is the current working directory of the specified drive.

Drive is to be of the form "Letter:", for example, "c:".

Returns {error, enotsup} on platforms that have no concept of current drive (Unix, for example).

Typical error reasons:

enotsup

  The operating system has no concept of drives.

eacces

  The drive does not exist.

einval

  The format of Drive is invalid.

####
list_dir(Dir) -> {ok, Filenames} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Dir = name_all()
Filenames = [filename()]
Reason =
posix() |
badarg |
{no_translation, Filename :: unicode:latin1_binary()}

Lists all files in a directory, except files with raw filenames. Returns {ok, Filenames} if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. Filenames is a list of the names of all the files in the directory. The names are not sorted.

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing search or write permissions for Dir or one of its parent directories.

enoent

  The directory does not exist.

{no_translation, Filename}

  Filename is a binary() with characters coded in ISO Latin-1 and the VM was started with parameter +fnue.

####
list_dir_all(Dir) -> {ok, Filenames} | {error, Reason}
OTP R16B

### Types

Dir = name_all()
Filenames = [filename_all()]
Reason = posix() | badarg

Lists all the files in a directory, including files with raw filenames. Returns {ok, Filenames} if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. Filenames is a list of the names of all the files in the directory. The names are not sorted.

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing search or write permissions for Dir or one of its parent directories.

enoent

  The directory does not exist.

####
make_dir(Dir) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Dir = name_all()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Tries to create directory Dir. Missing parent directories are not created. Returns ok if successful.

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing search or write permissions for the parent directories of Dir.

eexist

  A file or directory named Dir exists already.

enoent

  A component of Dir does not exist.

enospc

  No space is left on the device.

enotdir

  A component of Dir is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

####
make_link(Existing, New) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Existing = New = name_all()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Makes a hard link from Existing to New on platforms supporting links (Unix and Windows). This function returns ok if the link was successfully created, otherwise {error, Reason}. On platforms not supporting links, {error,enotsup} is returned.

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing read or write permissions for the parent directories of Existing or New.

eexist

  New already exists.

enotsup

  Hard links are not supported on this platform.

####
make_symlink(Existing, New) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Existing = New = name_all()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Creates a symbolic link New to the file or directory Existing on platforms supporting symbolic links (most Unix systems and Windows, beginning with Vista). Existing does not need to exist. Returns ok if the link is successfully created, otherwise {error, Reason}. On platforms not supporting symbolic links, {error, enotsup} is returned.

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing read or write permissions for the parent directories of Existing or New.

eexist

  New already exists.

enotsup

  Symbolic links are not supported on this platform.

eperm

  User does not have privileges to create symbolic links (SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege on Windows).

####
native_name_encoding() -> latin1 | utf8
OTP R14B01

Returns the filename encoding mode. If it is latin1, the system translates no filenames. If it is utf8, filenames are converted back and forth to the native filename encoding (usually UTF-8, but UTF-16 on Windows).

####
open(File, Modes) -> {ok, IoDevice} | {error, Reason}

### Types

File = Filename | iodata()
Filename = name_all()
Modes = [mode() | ram | directory]
IoDevice = io_device()
Reason = posix() | badarg | system_limit

Opens file File in the mode determined by Modes, which can contain one or more of the following options:

read

  The file, which must exist, is opened for reading.

write

  The file is opened for writing. It is created if it does not exist. If the file exists and write is not combined with read, the file is truncated.

append

  The file is opened for writing. It is created if it does not exist. Every write operation to a file opened with append takes place at the end of the file.

exclusive

  The file is opened for writing. It is created if it does not exist. If the file exists, {error, eexist} is returned.

  Warning

  This option does not guarantee exclusiveness on file systems not supporting O_EXCL properly, such as NFS. Do not depend on this option unless you know that the file system supports it (in general, local file systems are safe).

raw

  Allows faster access to a file, as no Erlang process is needed to handle the file. However, a file opened in this way has the following limitations:

  - The functions in the io module cannot be used, as they can only talk to an Erlang process. Instead, use functions read/2, read_line/1, and write/2.

  - Especially if read_line/1 is to be used on a raw file, it is recommended to combine this option with option {read_ahead, Size} as line-oriented I/O is inefficient without buffering.

  - Only the Erlang process that opened the file can use it.

  - A remote Erlang file server cannot be used. The computer on which the Erlang node is running must have access to the file system (directly or through NFS).

binary

  Read operations on the file return binaries rather than lists.

{delayed_write, Size, Delay}

  Data in subsequent write/2 calls is buffered until at least Size bytes are buffered, or until the oldest buffered data is Delay milliseconds old. Then all buffered data is written in one operating system call. The buffered data is also flushed before some other file operation than write/2 is executed.

  The purpose of this option is to increase performance by reducing the number of operating system calls. Thus, the write/2 calls must be for sizes significantly less than Size, and not interspersed by too many other file operations.

  When this option is used, the result of write/2 calls can prematurely be reported as successful, and if a write error occurs, the error is reported as the result of the next file operation, which is not executed.

  For example, when delayed_write is used, after a number of write/2 calls, close/1 can return {error, enospc}, as there is not enough space on the disc for previously written data. close/1 must probably be called again, as the file is still open.

delayed_write

  The same as {delayed_write, Size, Delay} with reasonable default values for Size and Delay (roughly some 64 KB, 2 seconds).

{read_ahead, Size}

  Activates read data buffering. If read/2 calls are for significantly less than Size bytes, read operations to the operating system are still performed for blocks of Size bytes. The extra data is buffered and returned in subsequent read/2 calls, giving a performance gain as the number of operating system calls is reduced.

  The read_ahead buffer is also highly used by function read_line/1 in raw mode, therefore this option is recommended (for performance reasons) when accessing raw files using that function.

  If read/2 calls are for sizes not significantly less than, or even greater than Size bytes, no performance gain can be expected.

read_ahead

  The same as {read_ahead, Size} with a reasonable default value for Size (roughly some 64 KB).

compressed

  Makes it possible to read or write gzip compressed files. Option compressed must be combined with read or write, but not both. Notice that the file size obtained with read_file_info/1 does probably not match the number of bytes that can be read from a compressed file.

{encoding, Encoding}

  Makes the file perform automatic translation of characters to and from a specific (Unicode) encoding. Notice that the data supplied to write/2 or returned by read/2 still is byte-oriented; this option denotes only how data is stored in the disk file.

  Depending on the encoding, different methods of reading and writing data is preferred. The default encoding of latin1 implies using this module (file) for reading and writing data as the interfaces provided here work with byte-oriented data. Using other (Unicode) encodings makes the io(3) functions get_chars, get_line, and put_chars more suitable, as they can work with the full Unicode range.

  If data is sent to an io_device() in a format that cannot be converted to the specified encoding, or if data is read by a function that returns data in a format that cannot cope with the character range of the data, an error occurs and the file is closed.

  Allowed values for Encoding:

  latin1

    The default encoding. Bytes supplied to the file, that is, write/2 are written "as is" on the file. Likewise, bytes read from the file, that is, read/2 are returned "as is". If module io(3) is used for writing, the file can only cope with Unicode characters up to code point 255 (the ISO Latin-1 range).

  unicode or utf8

    Characters are translated to and from UTF-8 encoding before they are written to or read from the file. A file opened in this way can be readable using function read/2, as long as no data stored on the file lies beyond the ISO Latin-1 range (0..255), but failure occurs if the data contains Unicode code points beyond that range. The file is best read with the functions in the Unicode aware module io(3).

    Bytes written to the file by any means are translated to UTF-8 encoding before being stored on the disk file.

  utf16 or {utf16,big}

    Works like unicode, but translation is done to and from big endian UTF-16 instead of UTF-8.

  {utf16,little}

    Works like unicode, but translation is done to and from little endian UTF-16 instead of UTF-8.

  utf32 or {utf32,big}

    Works like unicode, but translation is done to and from big endian UTF-32 instead of UTF-8.

  {utf32,little}

    Works like unicode, but translation is done to and from little endian UTF-32 instead of UTF-8.

  The Encoding can be changed for a file "on the fly" by using function io:setopts/2. So a file can be analyzed in latin1 encoding for, for example, a BOM, positioned beyond the BOM and then be set for the right encoding before further reading. For functions identifying BOMs, see module unicode(3).

  This option is not allowed on raw files.

ram

  File must be iodata(). Returns an fd(), which lets module file operate on the data in-memory as if it is a file.

sync

  On platforms supporting it, enables the POSIX O_SYNC synchronous I/O flag or its platform-dependent equivalent (for example, FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH on Windows) so that writes to the file block until the data is physically written to disk. However, be aware that the exact semantics of this flag differ from platform to platform. For example, none of Linux or Windows guarantees that all file metadata are also written before the call returns. For precise semantics, check the details of your platform documentation. On platforms with no support for POSIX O_SYNC or equivalent, use of the sync flag causes open to return {error, enotsup}.

directory

  Allows open to work on directories.

Returns:

{ok, IoDevice}

  The file is opened in the requested mode. IoDevice is a reference to the file.

{error, Reason}

  The file cannot be opened.

IoDevice is really the pid of the process that handles the file. This process monitors the process that originally opened the file (the owner process). If the owner process terminates, the file is closed and the process itself terminates too. An IoDevice returned from this call can be used as an argument to the I/O functions (see io(3)).

Warning

While this function can be used to open any file, we recommend against using it for NFS-mounted files, FIFOs, devices, or similar since they can cause IO threads to hang forever.

If your application needs to interact with these kinds of files we recommend breaking out those parts to a port program instead.

Note

In previous versions of file, modes were specified as one of the atoms read, write, or read_write instead of a list. This is still allowed for reasons of backwards compatibility, but is not to be used for new code. Also note that read_write is not allowed in a mode list.

Typical error reasons:

enoent

  The file does not exist.

eacces

  Missing permission for reading the file or searching one of the parent directories.

eisdir

  The named file is a directory.

enotdir

  A component of the filename is not a directory, or the filename itself is not a directory if directory mode was specified. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

enospc

  There is no space left on the device (if write access was specified).

####
path_consult(Path, Filename) ->
{ok, Terms, FullName} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Path = [Dir]
Dir = Filename = name_all()
Terms = [term()]
FullName = filename_all()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

Searches the path Path (a list of directory names) until the file Filename is found. If Filename is an absolute filename, Path is ignored. Then reads Erlang terms, separated by '.', from the file.

Returns one of the following:

{ok, Terms, FullName}

  The file is successfully read. FullName is the full name of the file.

{error, enoent}

  The file cannot be found in any of the directories in Path.

{error, atom()}

  An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. For a list of typical error codes, see open/2.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}

  An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang terms in the file. Use format_error/1 to convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error.

The encoding of Filename can be set by a comment as described in epp(3).

####
path_eval(Path, Filename) -> {ok, FullName} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Path = [Dir :: name_all()]
Filename = name_all()
FullName = filename_all()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

Searches the path Path (a list of directory names) until the file Filename is found. If Filename is an absolute filename, Path is ignored. Then reads and evaluates Erlang expressions, separated by '.' (or ',', a sequence of expressions is also an expression), from the file. The result of evaluation is not returned; any expression sequence in the file must be there for its side effect.

Returns one of the following:

{ok, FullName}

  The file is read and evaluated. FullName is the full name of the file.

{error, enoent}

  The file cannot be found in any of the directories in Path.

{error, atom()}

  An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. For a list of typical error codes, see open/2.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}

  An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang expressions in the file. Use format_error/1 to convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error.

The encoding of Filename can be set by a comment as described in epp(3).

####
path_open(Path, Filename, Modes) ->
{ok, IoDevice, FullName} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Path = [Dir :: name_all()]
Filename = name_all()
Modes = [mode() | directory]
IoDevice = io_device()
FullName = filename_all()
Reason = posix() | badarg | system_limit

Searches the path Path (a list of directory names) until the file Filename is found. If Filename is an absolute filename, Path is ignored. Then opens the file in the mode determined by Modes.

Returns one of the following:

{ok, IoDevice, FullName}

  The file is opened in the requested mode. IoDevice is a reference to the file and FullName is the full name of the file.

{error, enoent}

  The file cannot be found in any of the directories in Path.

{error, atom()}

  The file cannot be opened.

####
path_script(Path, Filename) ->
{ok, Value, FullName} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Path = [Dir :: name_all()]
Filename = name_all()
Value = term()
FullName = filename_all()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

Searches the path Path (a list of directory names) until the file Filename is found. If Filename is an absolute filename, Path is ignored. Then reads and evaluates Erlang expressions, separated by '.' (or ',', a sequence of expressions is also an expression), from the file.

Returns one of the following:

{ok, Value, FullName}

  The file is read and evaluated. FullName is the full name of the file and Value the value of the last expression.

{error, enoent}

  The file cannot be found in any of the directories in Path.

{error, atom()}

  An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. For a list of typical error codes, see open/2.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}

  An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang expressions in the file. Use format_error/1 to convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error.

The encoding of Filename can be set by a comment as described in epp(3).

####
path_script(Path, Filename, Bindings) ->
{ok, Value, FullName} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Path = [Dir :: name_all()]
Filename = name_all()
Bindings = erl_eval:binding_struct()
Value = term()
FullName = filename_all()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

The same as path_script/2 but the variable bindings Bindings are used in the evaluation. See erl_eval(3) about variable bindings.

####
pid2name(Pid) -> {ok, Filename} | undefined

### Types

Filename = filename_all()
Pid = pid()

If Pid is an I/O device, that is, a pid returned from open/2, this function returns the filename, or rather:

{ok, Filename}

  If the file server of this node is not a slave, the file was opened by the file server of this node (this implies that Pid must be a local pid) and the file is not closed. Filename is the filename in flat string format.

undefined

  In all other cases.

Warning

This function is intended for debugging only.

####
position(IoDevice, Location) ->
{ok, NewPosition} | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
Location = location()
NewPosition = integer()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Sets the position of the file referenced by IoDevice to Location. Returns {ok, NewPosition} (as absolute offset) if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. Location is one of the following:

Offset

  The same as {bof, Offset}.

{bof, Offset}

  Absolute offset.

{cur, Offset}

  Offset from the current position.

{eof, Offset}

  Offset from the end of file.

bof | cur | eof

  The same as above with Offset 0.

Notice that offsets are counted in bytes, not in characters. If the file is opened using some other encoding than latin1, one byte does not correspond to one character. Positioning in such a file can only be done to known character boundaries. That is, to a position earlier retrieved by getting a current position, to the beginning/end of the file or to some other position known to be on a correct character boundary by some other means (typically beyond a byte order mark in the file, which has a known byte-size).

A typical error reason is:

einval

  Either Location is illegal, or it is evaluated to a negative offset in the file. Notice that if the resulting position is a negative value, the result is an error, and after the call the file position is undefined.

####
pread(IoDevice, LocNums) -> {ok, DataL} | eof | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
LocNums =
[{Location :: location(), Number :: integer() >= 0}]
DataL = [Data]
Data = string() | binary() | eof
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Performs a sequence of pread/3 in one operation, which is more efficient than calling them one at a time. Returns {ok, [Data, ...]} or {error, Reason}, where each Data, the result of the corresponding pread, is either a list or a binary depending on the mode of the file, or eof if the requested position is beyond end of file.

As the position is specified as a byte-offset, take special caution when working with files where encoding is set to something else than latin1, as not every byte position is a valid character boundary on such a file.

####
pread(IoDevice, Location, Number) ->
{ok, Data} | eof | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
Location = location()
Number = integer() >= 0
Data = string() | binary()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Combines position/2 and read/2 in one operation, which is more efficient than calling them one at a time.

Location is only allowed to be an integer for raw and ram modes.

The current position of the file after the operation is undefined for raw mode and unchanged for ram mode.

As the position is specified as a byte-offset, take special caution when working with files where encoding is set to something else than latin1, as not every byte position is a valid character boundary on such a file.

####
pwrite(IoDevice, LocBytes) -> ok | {error, {N, Reason}}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
LocBytes = [{Location :: location(), Bytes :: iodata()}]
N = integer() >= 0
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Performs a sequence of pwrite/3 in one operation, which is more efficient than calling them one at a time. Returns ok or {error, {N, Reason}}, where N is the number of successful writes done before the failure.

When positioning in a file with other encoding than latin1, caution must be taken to set the position on a correct character boundary. For details, see position/2.

####
pwrite(IoDevice, Location, Bytes) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
Location = location()
Bytes = iodata()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Combines position/2 and write/2 in one operation, which is more efficient than calling them one at a time.

Location is only allowed to be an integer for raw and ram modes.

The current position of the file after the operation is undefined for raw mode and unchanged for ram mode.

When positioning in a file with other encoding than latin1, caution must be taken to set the position on a correct character boundary. For details, see position/2.

####
read(IoDevice, Number) -> {ok, Data} | eof | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device() | atom()
Number = integer() >= 0
Data = string() | binary()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated |
{no_translation, unicode, latin1}

Reads Number bytes/characters from the file referenced by IoDevice. The functions read/2, pread/3, and read_line/1 are the only ways to read from a file opened in raw mode (although they work for normally opened files, too).

For files where encoding is set to something else than latin1, one character can be represented by more than one byte on the file. The parameter Number always denotes the number of characters read from the file, while the position in the file can be moved much more than this number when reading a Unicode file.

Also, if encoding is set to something else than latin1, the read/3 call fails if the data contains characters larger than 255, which is why module io(3) is to be preferred when reading such a file.

The function returns:

{ok, Data}

  If the file was opened in binary mode, the read bytes are returned in a binary, otherwise in a list. The list or binary is shorter than the number of bytes requested if end of file was reached.

eof

  Returned if Number>0 and end of file was reached before anything at all could be read.

{error, Reason}

  An error occurred.

Typical error reasons:

ebadf

  The file is not opened for reading.

{no_translation, unicode, latin1}

  The file is opened with another encoding than latin1 and the data in the file cannot be translated to the byte-oriented data that this function returns.

####
read_file(Filename) -> {ok, Binary} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Binary = binary()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated | system_limit

Returns {ok, Binary}, where Binary is a binary data object that contains the contents of Filename, or {error, Reason} if an error occurs.

Typical error reasons:

enoent

  The file does not exist.

eacces

  Missing permission for reading the file, or for searching one of the parent directories.

eisdir

  The named file is a directory.

enotdir

  A component of the filename is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

enomem

  There is not enough memory for the contents of the file.

####
read_file_info(File) -> {ok, FileInfo} | {error, Reason}

####
read_file_info(File, Opts) -> {ok, FileInfo} | {error, Reason}
OTP R15B

### Types

File = name_all() | io_device()
Opts = [file_info_option()]
FileInfo = file_info()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Retrieves information about a file. Returns {ok, FileInfo} if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. FileInfo is a record file_info, defined in the Kernel include file file.hrl. Include the following directive in the module from which the function is called:

     -include_lib("kernel/include/file.hrl").

The time type returned in atime, mtime, and ctime is dependent on the time type set in Opts :: {time, Type} as follows:

local

  Returns local time.

universal

  Returns universal time.

posix

  Returns seconds since or before Unix time epoch, which is 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC.

Default is {time, local}.

If the option raw is set, the file server is not called and only information about local files is returned. Note that this will break this module's atomicity guarantees as it can race with a concurrent call to write_file_info/1,2 .

This option has no effect when the function is given an I/O device instead of a file name. Use open/2 with the raw mode to obtain a file descriptor first.

Note

As file times are stored in POSIX time on most OS, it is faster to query file information with option posix.

The record file_info contains the following fields:

size = integer() >= 0

  Size of file in bytes.

type = device | directory | other | regular

  The type of the file. Can also contain symlink when returned from read_link_info/1,2.

access = read | write | read_write | none

  The current system access to the file.

atime = date_time() | integer() >= 0

  The last time the file was read.

mtime = date_time() | integer() >= 0

  The last time the file was written.

ctime = date_time() | integer() >=0

  The interpretation of this time field depends on the operating system. On Unix, it is the last time the file or the inode was changed. In Windows, it is the create time.

mode = integer() >= 0

  The file permissions as the sum of the following bit values:

  8#00400

    read permission: owner

  8#00200

    write permission: owner

  8#00100

    execute permission: owner

  8#00040

    read permission: group

  8#00020

    write permission: group

  8#00010

    execute permission: group

  8#00004

    read permission: other

  8#00002

    write permission: other

  8#00001

    execute permission: other

  16#800

    set user id on execution

  16#400

    set group id on execution

  On Unix platforms, other bits than those listed above may be set.

links = integer() >= 0

  Number of links to the file (this is always 1 for file systems that have no concept of links).

major_device = integer() >= 0

  Identifies the file system where the file is located. In Windows, the number indicates a drive as follows: 0 means A:, 1 means B:, and so on.

minor_device = integer() >= 0

  Only valid for character devices on Unix. In all other cases, this field is zero.

inode = integer() >= 0

  Gives the inode number. On non-Unix file systems, this field is zero.

uid = integer() >= 0

  Indicates the owner of the file. On non-Unix file systems, this field is zero.

gid = integer() >= 0

  Gives the group that the owner of the file belongs to. On non-Unix file systems, this field is zero.

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing search permission for one of the parent directories of the file.

enoent

  The file does not exist.

enotdir

  A component of the filename is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

####
read_line(IoDevice) -> {ok, Data} | eof | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device() | atom()
Data = string() | binary()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated |
{no_translation, unicode, latin1}

Reads a line of bytes/characters from the file referenced by IoDevice. Lines are defined to be delimited by the linefeed (LF, \n) character, but any carriage return (CR, \r) followed by a newline is also treated as a single LF character (the carriage return is silently ignored). The line is returned including the LF, but excluding any CR immediately followed by an LF. This behaviour is consistent with the behaviour of io:get_line/2. If end of file is reached without any LF ending the last line, a line with no trailing LF is returned.

The function can be used on files opened in raw mode. However, it is inefficient to use it on raw files if the file is not opened with option {read_ahead, Size} specified. Thus, combining raw and {read_ahead, Size} is highly recommended when opening a text file for raw line-oriented reading.

If encoding is set to something else than latin1, the read_line/1 call fails if the data contains characters larger than 255, why module io(3) is to be preferred when reading such a file.

The function returns:

{ok, Data}

  One line from the file is returned, including the trailing LF, but with CRLF sequences replaced by a single LF (see above).

  If the file is opened in binary mode, the read bytes are returned in a binary, otherwise in a list.

eof

  Returned if end of file was reached before anything at all could be read.

{error, Reason}

  An error occurred.

Typical error reasons:

ebadf

  The file is not opened for reading.

{no_translation, unicode, latin1}

  The file is opened with another encoding than latin1 and the data on the file cannot be translated to the byte-oriented data that this function returns.

####
read_link(Name) -> {ok, Filename} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Name = name_all()
Filename = filename()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Returns {ok, Filename} if Name refers to a symbolic link that is not a raw filename, or {error, Reason} otherwise. On platforms that do not support symbolic links, the return value is {error,enotsup}.

Typical error reasons:

einval

  Name does not refer to a symbolic link or the name of the file that it refers to does not conform to the expected encoding.

enoent

  The file does not exist.

enotsup

  Symbolic links are not supported on this platform.

####
read_link_all(Name) -> {ok, Filename} | {error, Reason}
OTP R16B

### Types

Name = name_all()
Filename = filename_all()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Returns {ok, Filename} if Name refers to a symbolic link or {error, Reason} otherwise. On platforms that do not support symbolic links, the return value is {error,enotsup}.

Notice that Filename can be either a list or a binary.

Typical error reasons:

einval

  Name does not refer to a symbolic link.

enoent

  The file does not exist.

enotsup

  Symbolic links are not supported on this platform.

####
read_link_info(Name) -> {ok, FileInfo} | {error, Reason}

####
read_link_info(Name, Opts) -> {ok, FileInfo} | {error, Reason}
OTP R15B

### Types

Name = name_all()
Opts = [file_info_option()]
FileInfo = file_info()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Works like read_file_info/1,2 except that if Name is a symbolic link, information about the link is returned in the file_info record and the type field of the record is set to symlink.

If the option raw is set, the file server is not called and only information about local files is returned. Note that this will break this module's atomicity guarantees as it can race with a concurrent call to write_file_info/1,2

If Name is not a symbolic link, this function returns the same result as read_file_info/1. On platforms that do not support symbolic links, this function is always equivalent to read_file_info/1.

####
rename(Source, Destination) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Source = Destination = name_all()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Tries to rename the file Source to Destination. It can be used to move files (and directories) between directories, but it is not sufficient to specify the destination only. The destination filename must also be specified. For example, if bar is a normal file and foo and baz are directories, rename("foo/bar", "baz") returns an error, but rename("foo/bar", "baz/bar") succeeds. Returns ok if it is successful.

Note

Renaming of open files is not allowed on most platforms (see eacces below).

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing read or write permissions for the parent directories of Source or Destination. On some platforms, this error is given if either Source or Destination is open.

eexist

  Destination is not an empty directory. On some platforms, also given when Source and Destination are not of the same type.

einval

  Source is a root directory, or Destination is a subdirectory of Source.

eisdir

  Destination is a directory, but Source is not.

enoent

  Source does not exist.

enotdir

  Source is a directory, but Destination is not.

exdev

  Source and Destination are on different file systems.

####
script(Filename) -> {ok, Value} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Value = term()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

Reads and evaluates Erlang expressions, separated by '.' (or ',', a sequence of expressions is also an expression), from the file.

Returns one of the following:

{ok, Value}

  The file is read and evaluated. Value is the value of the last expression.

{error, atom()}

  An error occurred when opening the file or reading it. For a list of typical error codes, see open/2.

{error, {Line, Mod, Term}}

  An error occurred when interpreting the Erlang expressions in the file. Use format_error/1 to convert the three-element tuple to an English description of the error.

The encoding of Filename can be set by a comment as described in epp(3).

####
script(Filename, Bindings) -> {ok, Value} | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Bindings = erl_eval:binding_struct()
Value = term()
Reason =
posix() |
badarg | terminated | system_limit |
{Line :: integer(), Mod :: module(), Term :: term()}

The same as script/1 but the variable bindings Bindings are used in the evaluation. See erl_eval(3) about variable bindings.

####
sendfile(Filename, Socket) ->
{ok, integer() >= 0} |
{error, inet:posix() | closed | badarg | not_owner}
OTP R15B

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Socket =
inet:socket() |
socket:socket() |
fun((iolist()) -> ok | {error, inet:posix() | closed})

Sends the file Filename to Socket. Returns {ok, BytesSent} if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}.

####
sendfile(RawFile, Socket, Offset, Bytes, Opts) ->
{ok, integer() >= 0} |
{error, inet:posix() | closed | badarg | not_owner}
OTP R15B

### Types

RawFile = fd()
Socket =
inet:socket() |
socket:socket() |
fun((iolist()) -> ok | {error, inet:posix() | closed})
Offset = Bytes = integer() >= 0
Opts = [sendfile_option()]
sendfile_option() =
{chunk_size, integer() >= 0} | {use_threads, boolean()}

Sends Bytes from the file referenced by RawFile beginning at Offset to Socket. Returns {ok, BytesSent} if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. If Bytes is set to 0 all data after the specified Offset is sent.

The file used must be opened using the raw flag, and the process calling sendfile must be the controlling process of the socket. See gen_tcp:controlling_process/2 or module socket's level otp socket option controlling_process.

If the OS used does not support non-blocking sendfile, an Erlang fallback using read/2 and gen_tcp:send/2 is used.

The option list can contain the following options:

chunk_size

  The chunk size used by the Erlang fallback to send data. If using the fallback, set this to a value that comfortably fits in the systems memory. Default is 20 MB.

####
set_cwd(Dir) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Dir = name() | EncodedBinary
EncodedBinary = binary()
Reason = posix() | badarg | no_translation

Sets the current working directory of the file server to Dir. Returns ok if successful.

The functions in the module file usually treat binaries as raw filenames, that is, they are passed "as is" even when the encoding of the binary does not agree with native_name_encoding(). However, this function expects binaries to be encoded according to the value returned by native_name_encoding().

Typical error reasons are:

enoent

  The directory does not exist.

enotdir

  A component of Dir is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned.

eacces

  Missing permission for the directory or one of its parents.

badarg

  Dir has an improper type, such as tuple.

no_translation

  Dir is a binary() with characters coded in ISO-latin-1 and the VM is operating with unicode filename encoding.

Warning

In a future release, a bad type for argument Dir will probably generate an exception.

####
sync(IoDevice) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Ensures that any buffers kept by the operating system (not by the Erlang runtime system) are written to disk. On some platforms, this function might have no effect.

A typical error reason is:

enospc

  Not enough space left to write the file.

####
truncate(IoDevice) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Truncates the file referenced by IoDevice at the current position. Returns ok if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}.

####
write(IoDevice, Bytes) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

IoDevice = io_device() | atom()
Bytes = iodata()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated

Writes Bytes to the file referenced by IoDevice. This function is the only way to write to a file opened in raw mode (although it works for normally opened files too). Returns ok if successful, and {error, Reason} otherwise.

If the file is opened with encoding set to something else than latin1, each byte written can result in many bytes being written to the file, as the byte range 0..255 can represent anything between one and four bytes depending on value and UTF encoding type.

Typical error reasons:

ebadf

  The file is not opened for writing.

enospc

  No space is left on the device.

####
write_file(Filename, Bytes) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Bytes = iodata()
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated | system_limit

Writes the contents of the iodata term Bytes to file Filename. The file is created if it does not exist. If it exists, the previous contents are overwritten. Returns ok if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}.

Typical error reasons:

enoent

  A component of the filename does not exist.

enotdir

  A component of the filename is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

enospc

  No space is left on the device.

eacces

  Missing permission for writing the file or searching one of the parent directories.

eisdir

  The named file is a directory.

####
write_file(Filename, Bytes, Modes) -> ok | {error, Reason}

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Bytes = iodata()
Modes = [mode()]
Reason = posix() | badarg | terminated | system_limit

Same as write_file/2, but takes a third argument Modes, a list of possible modes, see open/2. The mode flags binary and write are implicit, so they are not to be used.

####
write_file_info(Filename, FileInfo) -> ok | {error, Reason}

####
write_file_info(Filename, FileInfo, Opts) -> ok | {error, Reason}
OTP R15B

### Types

Filename = name_all()
Opts = [file_info_option()]
FileInfo = file_info()
Reason = posix() | badarg

Changes file information. Returns ok if successful, otherwise {error, Reason}. FileInfo is a record file_info, defined in the Kernel include file file.hrl. Include the following directive in the module from which the function is called:

     -include_lib("kernel/include/file.hrl").

The time type set in atime, mtime, and ctime depends on the time type set in Opts :: {time, Type} as follows:

local

  Interprets the time set as local.

universal

  Interprets it as universal time.

posix

  Must be seconds since or before Unix time epoch, which is 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC.

Default is {time, local}.

If the option raw is set, the file server is not called and only information about local files is returned.

The following fields are used from the record, if they are specified:

atime = date_time() | integer() >= 0

  The last time the file was read.

mtime = date_time() | integer() >= 0

  The last time the file was written.

ctime = date_time() | integer() >= 0

  On Unix, any value specified for this field is ignored (the "ctime" for the file is set to the current time). On Windows, this field is the new creation time to set for the file.

mode = integer() >= 0

  The file permissions as the sum of the following bit values:

  8#00400

    Read permission: owner

  8#00200

    Write permission: owner

  8#00100

    Execute permission: owner

  8#00040

    Read permission: group

  8#00020

    Write permission: group

  8#00010

    Execute permission: group

  8#00004

    Read permission: other

  8#00002

    Write permission: other

  8#00001

    Execute permission: other

  16#800

    Set user id on execution

  16#400

    Set group id on execution

  On Unix platforms, other bits than those listed above may be set.

uid = integer() >= 0

  Indicates the file owner. Ignored for non-Unix file systems.

gid = integer() >= 0

  Gives the group that the file owner belongs to. Ignored for non-Unix file systems.

Typical error reasons:

eacces

  Missing search permission for one of the parent directories of the file.

enoent

  The file does not exist.

enotdir

  A component of the filename is not a directory. On some platforms, enoent is returned instead.

###
POSIX Error Codes

- eacces - Permission denied
- eagain - Resource temporarily unavailable
- ebadf - Bad file number
- ebusy - File busy
- edquot - Disk quota exceeded
- eexist - File already exists
- efault - Bad address in system call argument
- efbig - File too large
- eintr - Interrupted system call
- einval - Invalid argument
- eio - I/O error
- eisdir - Illegal operation on a directory
- eloop - Too many levels of symbolic links
- emfile - Too many open files
- emlink - Too many links
- enametoolong - Filename too long
- enfile - File table overflow
- enodev - No such device
- enoent - No such file or directory
- enomem - Not enough memory
- enospc - No space left on device
- enotblk - Block device required
- enotdir - Not a directory
- enotsup - Operation not supported
- enxio - No such device or address
- eperm - Not owner
- epipe - Broken pipe
- erofs - Read-only file system
- espipe - Invalid seek
- esrch - No such process
- estale - Stale remote file handle
- exdev - Cross-domain link

###
Performance

For increased performance, raw files are recommended.

A normal file is really a process so it can be used as an I/O device (see io). Therefore, when data is written to a normal file, the sending of the data to the file process, copies all data that are not binaries. Opening the file in binary mode and writing binaries is therefore recommended. If the file is opened on another node, or if the file server runs as slave to the file server of another node, also binaries are copied.

Note

Raw files use the file system of the host machine of the node. For normal files (non-raw), the file server is used to find the files, and if the node is running its file server as slave to the file server of another node, and the other node runs on some other host machine, they can have different file systems. However, this is seldom a problem.

open/2 can be given the options delayed_write and read_ahead to turn on caching, which will reduce the number of operating system calls and greatly improve performance for small reads and writes. However, the overhead won't disappear completely and it's best to keep the number of file operations to a minimum. As a contrived example, the following function writes 4MB in 2.5 seconds when tested:

    create_file_slow(Name) ->
        {ok, Fd} = file:open(Name, [raw, write, delayed_write, binary]),
        create_file_slow_1(Fd, 4 bsl 20),
        file:close(Fd).

    create_file_slow_1(_Fd, 0) ->
        ok;
    create_file_slow_1(Fd, M) ->
        ok = file:write(Fd, <<0>>),
        create_file_slow_1(Fd, M - 1).

The following functionally equivalent code writes 128 bytes per call to write/2 and so does the same work in 0.08 seconds, which is roughly 30 times faster:

    create_file(Name) ->
        {ok, Fd} = file:open(Name, [raw, write, delayed_write, binary]),
        create_file_1(Fd, 4 bsl 20),
        file:close(Fd),
        ok.

    create_file_1(_Fd, 0) ->
        ok;
    create_file_1(Fd, M) when M >= 128 ->
        ok = file:write(Fd, <<0:(128)/unit:8>>),
        create_file_1(Fd, M - 128);
    create_file_1(Fd, M) ->
        ok = file:write(Fd, <<0:(M)/unit:8>>),
        create_file_1(Fd, M - 1).

When writing data it's generally more efficient to write a list of binaries rather than a list of integers. It is not needed to flatten a deep list before writing. On Unix hosts, scatter output, which writes a set of buffers in one operation, is used when possible. In this way write(FD, [Bin1, Bin2 | Bin3]) writes the contents of the binaries without copying the data at all, except for perhaps deep down in the operating system kernel.

Warning

If an error occurs when accessing an open file with module io, the process handling the file exits. The dead file process can hang if a process tries to access it later. This will be fixed in a future release.

###
See Also

filename(3)