added wxTempFile::Flush() (dedicated to Theodore Ts'o and Ext4)
[wxWidgets.git] / interface / wx / file.h
1 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2 // Name: file.h
3 // Purpose: interface of wxTempFile, wxFile
4 // Author: wxWidgets team
5 // RCS-ID: $Id$
6 // Licence: wxWindows license
7 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
8
9
10 /**
11 We redefine these constants here because S_IREAD &c are _not_ standard.
12 However, we do assume that the values correspond to the Unix umask bits.
13 */
14 enum wxPosixPermissions
15 {
16 /// standard Posix names for these permission flags
17 //@{
18 wxS_IRUSR = 00400,
19 wxS_IWUSR = 00200,
20 wxS_IXUSR = 00100,
21
22 wxS_IRGRP = 00040,
23 wxS_IWGRP = 00020,
24 wxS_IXGRP = 00010,
25
26 wxS_IROTH = 00004,
27 wxS_IWOTH = 00002,
28 wxS_IXOTH = 00001,
29 //@}
30
31 /// longer but more readable synonims for the constants above
32 //@{
33 wxPOSIX_USER_READ = wxS_IRUSR,
34 wxPOSIX_USER_WRITE = wxS_IWUSR,
35 wxPOSIX_USER_EXECUTE = wxS_IXUSR,
36
37 wxPOSIX_GROUP_READ = wxS_IRGRP,
38 wxPOSIX_GROUP_WRITE = wxS_IWGRP,
39 wxPOSIX_GROUP_EXECUTE = wxS_IXGRP,
40
41 wxPOSIX_OTHERS_READ = wxS_IROTH,
42 wxPOSIX_OTHERS_WRITE = wxS_IWOTH,
43 wxPOSIX_OTHERS_EXECUTE = wxS_IXOTH,
44 //@}
45
46 /// Default mode for the new files: allow reading/writing them to everybody but
47 /// the effective file mode will be set after ANDing this value with umask and
48 /// so won't include wxS_IW{GRP,OTH} for the default 022 umask value
49 wxS_DEFAULT = (wxPOSIX_USER_READ | wxPOSIX_USER_WRITE | \
50 wxPOSIX_GROUP_READ | wxPOSIX_GROUP_WRITE | \
51 wxPOSIX_OTHERS_READ | wxPOSIX_OTHERS_WRITE),
52
53 /// Default mode for the new directories (see wxFileName::Mkdir): allow
54 /// reading/writing/executing them to everybody, but just like wxS_DEFAULT
55 /// the effective directory mode will be set after ANDing this value with umask
56 wxS_DIR_DEFAULT = (wxPOSIX_USER_READ | wxPOSIX_USER_WRITE | wxPOSIX_USER_EXECUTE | \
57 wxPOSIX_GROUP_READ | wxPOSIX_GROUP_WRITE | wxPOSIX_GROUP_EXECUTE | \
58 wxPOSIX_OTHERS_READ | wxPOSIX_OTHERS_WRITE | wxPOSIX_OTHERS_EXECUTE)
59 };
60
61
62
63 /**
64 @class wxTempFile
65
66 wxTempFile provides a relatively safe way to replace the contents of the
67 existing file. The name is explained by the fact that it may be also used as
68 just a temporary file if you don't replace the old file contents.
69
70 Usually, when a program replaces the contents of some file it first opens it for
71 writing, thus losing all of the old data and then starts recreating it.
72 This approach is not very safe because during the regeneration of the file bad
73 things may happen: the program may find that there is an internal error preventing
74 it from completing file generation, the user may interrupt it (especially if file
75 generation takes long time) and, finally, any other external interrupts (power
76 supply failure or a disk error) will leave you without either the original file
77 or the new one.
78
79 wxTempFile addresses this problem by creating a temporary file which is meant to
80 replace the original file - but only after it is fully written. So, if the user
81 interrupts the program during the file generation, the old file won't be lost.
82 Also, if the program discovers itself that it doesn't want to replace the old
83 file there is no problem - in fact, wxTempFile will @b not replace the old
84 file by default, you should explicitly call wxTempFile::Commit() to do it.
85 Calling wxTempFile::Discard() explicitly discards any modifications: it
86 closes and deletes the temporary file and leaves the original file unchanged.
87 If you call neither Commit() nor Discard(), the destructor will
88 call Discard() automatically.
89
90 To summarize: if you want to replace another file, create an instance of
91 wxTempFile passing the name of the file to be replaced to the constructor.
92 (You may also use default constructor and pass the file name to wxTempFile::Open.)
93 Then you can write to wxTempFile using wxFile-like functions and later call
94 wxTempFile::Commit() to replace the old file (and close this one) or call
95 wxTempFile::Discard() to cancel the modifications.
96
97 @library{wxbase}
98 @category{file}
99 */
100 class wxTempFile
101 {
102 public:
103 /**
104 Associates wxTempFile with the file to be replaced and opens it.
105
106 @warning
107 You should use IsOpened() to verify that the constructor succeeded.
108 */
109 wxTempFile(const wxString& strName);
110
111 /**
112 Destructor calls Discard() if temporary file is still open.
113 */
114 ~wxTempFile();
115
116 /**
117 Validate changes: deletes the old file of name m_strName and renames the new
118 file to the old name. Returns @true if both actions succeeded.
119
120 If @false is returned it may unfortunately mean two quite different things:
121 either that the old file couldn't be deleted or that the new file
122 couldn't be renamed to the old name.
123 */
124 bool Commit();
125
126 /**
127 Discard changes: the old file contents are not changed, the temporary
128 file is deleted.
129 */
130 void Discard();
131
132 /**
133 Flush the data written to the file to disk.
134
135 This simply calls wxFile::Flush() for the underlying file and may be
136 necessary with file systems such as XFS and Ext4 under Linux. Calling
137 this function may however have serious performance implications and
138 also is not necessary with many other file systems so it is not done by
139 default -- but you can call it before calling Commit() to absolutely
140 ensure that the data was indeed written to the disk correctly.
141 */
142 bool Flush();
143
144 /**
145 Returns @true if the file was successfully opened.
146 */
147 bool IsOpened() const;
148
149 /**
150 Returns the length of the file.
151
152 This method may return ::wxInvalidOffset if the length couldn't be
153 determined or 0 even for non-empty files if the file is not seekable.
154
155 In general, the only way to determine if the file for which this function
156 returns 0 is really empty or not is to try reading from it.
157 */
158 wxFileOffset Length() const;
159
160 /**
161 Open the temporary file, returns @true on success, @false if an error
162 occurred.
163 @a strName is the name of file to be replaced. The temporary file is always
164 created in the directory where @a strName is. In particular, if @a strName
165 doesn't include the path, it is created in the current directory and the
166 program should have write access to it for the function to succeed.
167 */
168 bool Open(const wxString& strName);
169
170 /**
171 Seeks to the specified position.
172 */
173 wxFileOffset Seek(wxFileOffset ofs,
174 wxSeekMode mode = wxFromStart);
175
176 /**
177 Returns the current position or ::wxInvalidOffset if file is not opened or
178 if another error occurred.
179 */
180 wxFileOffset Tell() const;
181
182 /**
183 Write to the file, return @true on success, @false on failure.
184 The second argument is only meaningful in Unicode build of wxWidgets when
185 @a conv is used to convert @a str to multibyte representation.
186 */
187 bool Write(const wxString& str,
188 const wxMBConv& conv = wxConvUTF8);
189 };
190
191
192
193 /**
194 @class wxFile
195
196 A wxFile performs raw file I/O. This is a very small class designed to
197 minimize the overhead of using it - in fact, there is hardly any overhead at
198 all, but using it brings you automatic error checking and hides differences
199 between platforms and compilers. wxFile also automatically closes the file in
200 its destructor so you won't forget to do so.
201 wxFile is a wrapper around @c file descriptor. - see also wxFFile for a
202 wrapper around @c FILE structure.
203
204 ::wxFileOffset is used by the wxFile functions which require offsets as
205 parameter or return them. If the platform supports it, wxFileOffset is a
206 typedef for a native 64 bit integer, otherwise a 32 bit integer is used for
207 ::wxFileOffset.
208
209 @library{wxbase}
210 @category{file}
211 */
212 class wxFile
213 {
214 public:
215
216 /**
217 The OpenMode enumeration defines the different modes for opening a file with wxFile.
218 It is also used with wxFile::Access function.
219 */
220 enum OpenMode {
221
222 /** Open file for reading or test if it can be opened for reading with Access() */
223 read,
224
225 /** Open file for writing deleting the contents of the file if it already exists
226 or test if it can be opened for writing with Access(). */
227 write,
228
229 /** Open file for reading and writing; can not be used with Access() */
230 read_write,
231
232 /** Open file for appending: the file is opened for writing, but the old contents
233 of the file are not erased and the file pointer is initially placed at the end
234 of the file; can not be used with Access().
235
236 This is the same as OpenMode::write if the file doesn't exist.
237 */
238 write_append,
239
240 /**
241 Open the file securely for writing (Uses O_EXCL | O_CREAT).
242 Will fail if the file already exists, else create and open it atomically.
243 Useful for opening temporary files without being vulnerable to race exploits.
244 */
245 write_excl
246 };
247
248 /**
249 Standard file descriptors
250 */
251 enum { fd_invalid = -1, fd_stdin, fd_stdout, fd_stderr };
252
253 /**
254 Default constructor.
255 */
256 wxFile();
257
258 /**
259 Opens a file with a filename.
260
261 @param filename
262 The filename.
263 @param mode
264 The mode in which to open the file.
265
266 @warning
267 You should use IsOpened() to verify that the constructor succeeded.
268 */
269 wxFile(const wxString& filename,
270 wxFile::OpenMode mode = wxFile::read);
271
272 /**
273 Associates the file with the given file descriptor, which has already been
274 opened. See Attach() for the list of predefined descriptors.
275
276 @param fd
277 An existing file descriptor.
278 */
279 wxFile(int fd);
280
281 /**
282 Destructor will close the file.
283 @note This destructor is not virtual so you should not use wxFile polymorphically.
284 */
285 ~wxFile();
286
287 /**
288 This function verifies if we may access the given file in specified mode.
289 Only values of @c wxFile::read or @c wxFile::write really make sense here.
290 */
291 static bool Access(const wxString& name, wxFile::OpenMode mode);
292
293 /**
294 Attaches an existing file descriptor to the wxFile object.
295 Examples of predefined file descriptors are 0, 1 and 2 which correspond to
296 stdin, stdout and stderr (and have symbolic names of @c wxFile::fd_stdin,
297 @c wxFile::fd_stdout and @c wxFile::fd_stderr).
298
299 The descriptor should be already opened and it will be closed by wxFile
300 object.
301 */
302 void Attach(int fd);
303
304 /**
305 Closes the file.
306 */
307 bool Close();
308
309 /**
310 Creates a file for writing.
311
312 If the file already exists, setting @b overwrite to @true will ensure
313 it is overwritten.
314
315 @a access may be an OR combination of the ::wxPosixPermissions enumeration
316 values.
317 */
318 bool Create(const wxString& filename,
319 bool overwrite = false,
320 int access = wxS_DEFAULT);
321
322 /**
323 Get back a file descriptor from wxFile object - the caller is responsible for
324 closing the file if this descriptor is opened.
325 IsOpened() will return @false after call to Detach().
326 */
327 void Detach();
328
329 /**
330 Returns @true if the end of the file has been reached.
331 Note that the behaviour of the file pointer-based class wxFFile is
332 different as wxFFile::Eof() will return @true here only if an
333 attempt has been made to read @b past the last byte of the file, while
334 wxFile::Eof() will return @true even before such attempt is made if the
335 file pointer is at the last position in the file.
336
337 Note also that this function doesn't work on unseekable file descriptors
338 (examples include pipes, terminals and sockets under Unix) and an attempt to
339 use it will result in an error message.
340
341 So, to read the entire file into memory, you should write a loop which uses
342 Read() repeatedly and tests its return condition instead of using Eof()
343 as this will not work for special files under Unix.
344 */
345 bool Eof() const;
346
347 /**
348 Returns @true if the given name specifies an existing regular file
349 (not a directory or a link).
350 */
351 static bool Exists(const wxString& filename);
352
353 /**
354 Flushes the file descriptor.
355
356 Note that Flush() is not implemented on some Windows compilers due to a
357 missing fsync function, which reduces the usefulness of this function
358 (it can still be called but it will do nothing on unsupported compilers).
359 */
360 bool Flush();
361
362 /**
363 Returns the type of the file.
364 */
365 wxFileKind GetKind() const;
366
367 /**
368 Returns @true if the file has been opened.
369 */
370 bool IsOpened() const;
371
372 /**
373 Returns the length of the file.
374 */
375 wxFileOffset Length() const;
376
377 /**
378 Opens the file, returning @true if successful.
379
380 @param filename
381 The filename.
382 @param mode
383 The mode in which to open the file.
384 @param access
385 An OR-combination of ::wxPosixPermissions enumeration values.
386 */
387 bool Open(const wxString& filename, wxFile::OpenMode mode = wxFile::read,
388 int access = wxS_DEFAULT);
389
390 /**
391 Reads from the file into a memory buffer.
392
393 @param buffer
394 Buffer to write in
395 @param count
396 Bytes to read
397
398 @return The number of bytes read, or the symbol ::wxInvalidOffset.
399 */
400 ssize_t Read(void* buffer, size_t count);
401
402 /**
403 Seeks to the specified position.
404
405 @param ofs
406 Offset to seek to.
407 @param mode
408 One of wxFromStart, wxFromEnd, wxFromCurrent.
409
410 @return The actual offset position achieved, or ::wxInvalidOffset on
411 failure.
412 */
413 wxFileOffset Seek(wxFileOffset ofs,
414 wxSeekMode mode = wxFromStart);
415
416 /**
417 Moves the file pointer to the specified number of bytes relative to the
418 end of the file. For example, @c SeekEnd(-5) would position the pointer 5
419 bytes before the end.
420
421 @param ofs
422 Number of bytes before the end of the file.
423
424 @return The actual offset position achieved, or ::wxInvalidOffset on
425 failure.
426 */
427 wxFileOffset SeekEnd(wxFileOffset ofs = 0);
428
429 /**
430 Returns the current position or ::wxInvalidOffset if file is not opened or
431 if another error occurred.
432 */
433 wxFileOffset Tell() const;
434
435 /**
436 Write data to the file (descriptor).
437
438 @param buffer
439 Buffer from which to read data
440 @param count
441 Number of bytes to write
442
443 @return The number of bytes written.
444 */
445 size_t Write(const void *buffer, size_t count);
446
447 /**
448 Writes the contents of the string to the file, returns @true on success.
449 The second argument is only meaningful in Unicode build of wxWidgets when
450 @a conv is used to convert @a s to a multibyte representation.
451
452 Note that this method only works with @c NUL-terminated strings, if you want
453 to write data with embedded @c NULs to the file you should use the other
454 Write() overload.
455 */
456 bool Write(const wxString& s, const wxMBConv& conv = wxConvUTF8);
457
458 /**
459 Returns the file descriptor associated with the file.
460 */
461 int fd() const;
462 };
463