luc14n0/glib
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib.git synced 2024-12-26 15:36:14 +01:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Add more documentation about how GFiles work (from #517086)

Browse Source 
2008-02-21  Alexander Larsson  <alexl@redhat.com>

        * gfile.c:
	Add more documentation about how GFiles work (from #517086)


svn path=/trunk/; revision=6547
This commit is contained in:
Alexander Larsson 2008-02-21 10:21:11 +00:00 committed by Alexander Larsson
parent 6dc9b7ee00
commit 4fb597e5f9
2 changed files with 59 additions and 15 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

5
gio/ChangeLog
View File

@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
2008-02-21 Alexander Larsson <alexl@redhat.com>
* gfile.c:
Add more documentation about how GFiles work (from #517086)
2008-02-21 Alexander Larsson <alexl@redhat.com>
* gfile.[ch]:

67
gio/gfile.c
View File

@ -46,20 +46,49 @@
* #GFile is a high level abstraction for manipulating files on a
* virtual file system. #GFile<!-- -->s are lightweight, immutable
* objects that do no I/O upon creation. It is necessary to understand that
* #GFile objects do not represent files, merely a handle to a file. All
* file I/O is implemented as streaming operations (see #GInputStream and
* #GFile objects do not represent files, merely an identifier for a file. All
* file content I/O is implemented as streaming operations (see #GInputStream and
* #GOutputStream).
*
* To construct a #GFile, you can use:
* g_file_new_for_path() if you have a path.
* g_file_new_for_uri() if you have a URI.
* g_file_new_for_commandline_arg() for a command line argument.
* g_file_parse_name() from a utf8 string gotten from g_file_get_parse_name().
*
* You can move through the file system with #GFile handles with
* g_file_get_parent() to get a handle to the parent directory.
* g_file_get_child() to get a handle to a child within a directory.
* g_file_resolve_relative_path() to resolve a relative path between
* two #GFile<!-- -->s.
* One way to think of a #GFile is as an abstraction of a pathname. For normal
* files the system pathname is what is stored interanally, but as #GFile<!-- -->s
* are extensible it could also be something else that corresponds to a pathname
* in a userspace implementation of a filesystem.
*
* #GFile<!-- -->s make up hierarchies of directories and files that correspond to the
* files on a filesystem. You can move through the file system with #GFile using
* g_file_get_parent() to get an identifier for the parent directory, g_file_get_child()
* to get a child within a directory, g_file_resolve_relative_path() to resolve a relative
* path between two #GFile<!-- -->s. There can be multiple hierarchies, so you may not
* end up at the same root if you repeatedly call g_file_get_parent() on two different
* files.
*
* All #GFile<!-- -->s have a basename (get with g_file_get_basename()). These names
* are byte strings that are used to identify the file on the filesystem (relative to
* its parent directory) and there is no guarantees that they have any particular charset
* encoding or even make any sense at all. If you want to use filenames in a user
* interface you should use the display name that you can get by requesting the
* %G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_STANDARD_DISPLAY_NAME attribute with g_file_query_info().
* This is guaranteed to be in utf8 and can be used in a user interface. But always
* store the real basename or the #GFile to use to actually access the file, because
* there is no way to go from a display name to the actual name.
*
* Using #GFile as an indetifier has the same weaknesses as using an path in that
* there may be multiple aliases for the same file. For instance, hard or
* soft links may cause two different #GFile<!-- -->s to refer to the same file.
* Other possible causes for aliases are: case insensitive filesystems, short
* and long names on Fat/NTFS, or bind mounts in linux. If you want to check if
* two #GFile<!-- -->s point to the same file you can query for the
* %G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE attribute. Note that #GFile does some trivial
* canonicalization of pathnames passed in, so that trivial differences in the
* path string used at creation (dupplicated slashes, slash at end of path, "."
* or ".." path segments, etc) does not create different #GFile<!-- -->s.
*
* Many #GFile operations have both synchronous and asynchronous versions
* to suit your application. Asynchronous versions of synchronous functions
@ -355,9 +384,15 @@ g_file_get_uri_scheme (GFile *file)
* Gets the base name (the last component of the path) for a given #GFile.
*
* If called for the top level of a system (such as the filesystem root
* or a uri like sftp://host/ it will return a single directory separator
* or a uri like sftp://host/) it will return a single directory separator
* (and on Windows, possibly a drive letter).
*
* The base name is a byte string (*not* UTF-8). It has no defined encoding
* or rules other than it may not contain zero bytes. If you want to use
* filenames in a user interface you should use the display name that you
* can get by requesting the %G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_STANDARD_DISPLAY_NAME
* attribute with g_file_query_info().
*
* This call does no blocking i/o.
*
* Returns: string containing the #GFile's base name, or %NULL
@ -433,7 +468,8 @@ g_file_get_uri (GFile *file)
* g_file_parse_name().
*
* This is generally used to show the #GFile as a nice
* string in a user interface, like in a location entry.
* full-pathname kind of string in a user interface,
* like in a location entry.
*
* For local files with names that can safely be converted
* to UTF8 the pathname is used, otherwise the IRI is used
@ -510,7 +546,10 @@ g_file_hash (gconstpointer file)
* @file1: the first #GFile.
* @file2: the second #GFile.
*
* Checks equality of two given #GFile<!-- -->s
* Checks equality of two given #GFile<!-- -->s. Note that two
* #GFile<!-- -->s that differ can still refer to the same
* file on the filesystem due to various forms of filename
* aliasing.
*
* This call does no blocking i/o.
*
@ -563,9 +602,9 @@ g_file_get_parent (GFile *file)
/**
* g_file_get_child:
* @file: input #GFile.
* @name: string containing the child's name.
* @name: string containing the child's basename.
*
* Gets a specific child of @file with name equal to @name.
* Gets a child of @file with basename equal to @name.
*
* Note that the file with that specific name might not exist, but
* you can still have a #GFile that points to it. You can use this
@ -646,7 +685,7 @@ g_file_contains_file (GFile *parent,
* @prefix: input #GFile.
*
* Checks whether @file has the prefix specified by @prefix. In other word, if the
* inital elements of @file<!-- -->s pathname match @prefix.
* names of inital elements of @file<!-- -->s pathname match @prefix.
*
* This call does no i/o, as it works purely on names. As such it can sometimes
* return %FALSE even if @file is inside a @prefix (from a filesystem point of view),
@ -683,7 +722,7 @@ g_file_has_prefix (GFile *file,
* This call does no blocking i/o.
*
* Returns: string with the relative path from @descendant
* to @parent, or %NULL if @descendant is not a descendant of @parent. The returned string should be freed with
* to @parent, or %NULL if @descendant doesn't have @parent as prefix. The returned string should be freed with
* g_free() when no longer needed.
**/
char *