CkFileAccess C++ Reference Documentation

CkFileAccess

Current Version: 10.0.0

API for reading and writing files, creating and deleting directories, deleting directory trees, splitting and re-joining large files, etc. This is a freeware class. The reason for its existence is that in some programming languages, file I/O API's are limited or difficult to understand/use. This API provides an identical FILE I/O API across all programming languages supported by Chilkat.

Object Creation

// Local variable on the stack
CkFileAccess obj;

// Dynamically allocate/delete
CkFileAccess *pObj = new CkFileAccess();
// ...
delete pObj;

Properties

CurrentDir

void get_CurrentDir(CkString &str);
const char *currentDir(void);

The current working directory of the calling process.

DebugLogFilePath

void get_DebugLogFilePath(CkString &str);
const char *debugLogFilePath(void);
void put_DebugLogFilePath(const char *ansiOrUtf8Str);

If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.

This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:

a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

More Information and Examples

Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.

EndOfFile

bool get_EndOfFile(void);

Returns true if the current open file is at the end-of-file.

FileOpenError

int get_FileOpenError(void);

This property is set by the following methods: FileOpen, OpenForRead, OpenForWrite, OpenForReadWrite, and OpenForAppend. It provides an error code indicating the failure reason. Possible values are:

Success (No error)
Access denied.
File not found.
General (non-specific) open error.
File aleady exists.
Path refers to a directory and the access requested involves writing.
Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path.
The process already has the maximum number of files open.
Pathname is too long.
The system limit on the total number of open files has been reached.
Pathname refers to a device special file and no corresponding device exists.
Insufficient kernel memory was available.
Pathname was to be created but the device containing pathname has no room for the new file.
A component used as a directory in pathname is not, in fact, a directory.
Pathname refers to a regular file, too large to be opened (this would be a limitation of the underlying operating system, not a limitation imposed by Chilkat).
Pathname refers to a file on a read-only filesystem and write access was requested.

FileOpenErrorMsg

void get_FileOpenErrorMsg(CkString &str);
const char *fileOpenErrorMsg(void);

The error message text associated with the FileOpenError code.

LastErrorHtml

void get_LastErrorHtml(CkString &str);
const char *lastErrorHtml(void);

Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

LastErrorText

void get_LastErrorText(CkString &str);
const char *lastErrorText(void);

Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

More Information and Examples

Concept of LastErrorText LastErrorText Standard Information

LastErrorXml

void get_LastErrorXml(CkString &str);
const char *lastErrorXml(void);

Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

LastMethodSuccess

bool get_LastMethodSuccess(void);
void put_LastMethodSuccess(bool newVal);

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of true indicates success, a value of false indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

Any method that returns a string.
Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = true and failure = false.
Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to true. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

LockFileOnOpen

bool get_LockFileOnOpen(void);
void put_LockFileOnOpen(bool newVal);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Note: This property only applies for applications running on Windows.

If true, then the following methods open files for exclusive-access: OpenForAppend, OpenForRead, OpenForReadWrite, OpenForWrite. When a file is opened for exclusive access, it is locked so that no other process may open the file. When the file is closed, the lock is released.

The default value of this property is false.

Utf8

bool get_Utf8(void);
void put_Utf8(bool newVal);

When set to true, all "const char *" arguments are interpreted as utf-8 strings. If set to false (the default), then "const char *" arguments are interpreted as ANSI strings. Also, when set to true, and Chilkat method returning a "const char *" is returning the utf-8 representation. If set to false, all "const char *" return values are ANSI strings.

VerboseLogging

bool get_VerboseLogging(void);
void put_VerboseLogging(bool newVal);

If set to true, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is false. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

Version

void get_Version(CkString &str);
const char *version(void);

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

More Information and Examples

How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.

Methods

AppendAnsi

bool AppendAnsi(const char *text);

Appends a string using the ANSI character encoding to the currently open file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

AppendBd

bool AppendBd(CkBinData &bd);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.76

Appends the contents of bd to the currently open file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

AppendSb

bool AppendSb(CkStringBuilder &sb, const char *charset);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.76

Appends the contents of sb using the character encoding (such as "utf-8") specified by charset to the currently open file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

AppendText

bool AppendText(const char *str, const char *charset);

Appends a string using the character encoding specified by str to the currently open file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

AppendUnicodeBOM

bool AppendUnicodeBOM(void);

Appends the 2-byte Unicode BOM (little endian) to the currently open file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

AppendUtf8BOM

bool AppendUtf8BOM(void);

Appends the 3-byte utf-8 BOM to the currently open file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

DirAutoCreate

bool DirAutoCreate(const char *filePath);

Same as DirEnsureExists, except the argument is a file path (the last part of the path is a filename and not a directory). Creates all missing directories such that filePath may be created.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

DirCreate

bool DirCreate(const char *dirPath);

Creates a new directory specified by dirPath.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

DirDelete

bool DirDelete(const char *dirPath);

Deletes the directory specified by dirPath. It is only possible to delete a directory if it contains no files or subdirectories.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

DirEnsureExists

bool DirEnsureExists(const char *dirPath);

Creates all directories necessary such that the entire dirPath exists.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

DirExists

bool DirExists(const char *dirPath);

Introduced in version 10.0.0

Returns true if the dirPath exists.

FileClose

void FileClose(void);

Closes the currently open file.

FileContentsEqual

bool FileContentsEqual(const char *filePath1, const char *filePath2);

Compares the contents of two files and returns true if they are equal and otherwise returns false. The actual contents of the files are only compared if the sizes are equal. The files are not entirely loaded into memory. Instead, they are compared chunk by chunk. This allows for any size files to be compared, regardless of the memory capacity of the computer.

FileCopy

bool FileCopy(const char *existingFilepath, const char *newFilepath, bool failIfExists);

Copys existingFilepath to newFilepath. If failIfExists is true and newFilepath already exists, then an error is returned.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileDelete

bool FileDelete(const char *filePath);

Deletes the file specified by filePath.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileExists

bool FileExists(const char *filePath);

Returns true if filePath exists, otherwise returns false.

FileExists3

int FileExists3(const char *path);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.45

Returns 1 if the file exists, 0 if the file does not exist, and -1 if unable to check because of directory permissions or some other error that prevents the ability to obtain the information.

FileOpen

bool FileOpen(const char *filePath, unsigned long accessMode, unsigned long shareMode, unsigned long createDisposition, unsigned long attributes);

This method should only be called on Windows operating systems. It's arguments are similar to the Windows Platform SDK function named CreateFile. For Linux, MAC OS X, and other operating system, use the OpenForRead, OpenForWrite, OpenForReadWrite, and OpenForAppend methods.

Opens a file for reading or writing. The arguments mirror the Windows CreateFile function:

Access Modes:
GENERIC_READ	(0x80000000)
GENERIC_WRITE (0x40000000)

Share Modes:
FILE_SHARE_READ(0x00000001)
FILE_SHARE_WRITE(0x00000002)

Create Dispositions
CREATE_NEW          1
CREATE_ALWAYS       2
OPEN_EXISTING       3
OPEN_ALWAYS         4
TRUNCATE_EXISTING   5

// Attributes:
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY         0x00000001
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN           0x00000002
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM           0x00000004
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY        0x00000010
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE          0x00000020
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL           0x00000080
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY	   0x00000100

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileRead

bool FileRead(int maxNumBytes, CkByteData &outBytes);

Reads bytes from the currently open file. maxNumBytes specifies the maximum number of bytes to read. Returns an empty byte array on error.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileReadBd

bool FileReadBd(int maxNumBytes, CkBinData &binData);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Reads bytes from the currently open file. maxNumBytes specifies the maximum number of bytes to read. Appends the bytes to the binData.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Determine File Type from Binary Content of File Load Entire File into BinData

FileRename

bool FileRename(const char *existingFilepath, const char *newFilepath);

Renames a file from existingFilepath to newFilepath.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileSeek

bool FileSeek(int offset, int origin);

Sets the file pointer for the currently open file. The offset is an offset in bytes from the origin. The origin can be one of the following:

0 = Offset is from beginning of file.
1 = Offset is from current position of file pointer.
2 = Offset is from the end-of-file (offset may be negative).

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileSize

int FileSize(const char *filePath);

Returns the size, in bytes, of a file. Returns -1 for failure.

Note: This method returns a signed 32-bit integer, which is not large enough to handle files greater than 2GB in size. To handle larger files, call FileSizeStr instead, or call FileSize64. The FileSize64 method was added in Chilkat v9.5.0.88.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileSize64

__int64 FileSize64(const char *filePath);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

Returns the size, in bytes, of a file. Returns -1 for failure.

FileSizeStr

bool FileSizeStr(const char *filePath, CkString &outStr);
const char *fileSizeStr(const char *filePath);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Returns the size of the file in decimal string format.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileType

int FileType(const char *path);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Examines the file at path and returns one of the following values:

-1 = Unable to check because of directory permissions or some error preventing the ability to obtain the information.
0 = File does not exist.
1 = Regular file.
2 = Directory.
3 = Symbolic link.
4 = Windows Shortcut.
99 = Something else.

Additional file types may be added in the future as needed.

More Information and Examples

Determine File Type

FileWrite

bool FileWrite(CkByteData &data);

Writes bytes to the currently open file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileWrite2

bool FileWrite2(const void *pByteData, unsigned long szByteData);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.82

Writes bytes to the currently open file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

FileWriteBd

bool FileWriteBd(CkBinData &binData, int offset, int numBytes);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Writes the contents of binData to the currently open file. To specify the entire contents of binData, set both offset and numBytes equal to 0. To write all remaining data starting at offset, then set numBytes equal to 0.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Unzip Binary File to Stream

GenBlockId

bool GenBlockId(int index, int length, const char *encoding, CkString &outStr);
const char *genBlockId(int index, int length, const char *encoding);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

This is purely a utility/convenience method -- initially created to help with block file uploads to Azure Blob storage. It generates a block ID string that is the decimal representation of the index in length chars, and then encoded according to encoding (which can be an encoding such as "base64", "hex", "ascii", etc.) For example, if index = 8, length = 12, and encoding = "base64", then the string "00000012" is returned base64 encoded.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

GetDirectoryName

bool GetDirectoryName(const char *path, CkString &outStr);
const char *getDirectoryName(const char *path);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Returns the directory information for the specified path string.

GetDirectoryName('C:\MyDir\MySubDir\myfile.ext') returns 'C:\MyDir\MySubDir\'
GetDirectoryName('C:\MyDir\MySubDir') returns 'C:\MyDir\'
GetDirectoryName('C:\MyDir\') returns 'C:\MyDir\'
GetDirectoryName('C:\MyDir') returns 'C:\'
GetDirectoryName('C:\') returns 'C:\'

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Demonstrate Directory Path Functions

GetExtension

bool GetExtension(const char *path, CkString &outStr);
const char *getExtension(const char *path);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Returns the extension of the specified path string.

GetExtension('C:\mydir.old\myfile.ext') returns '.ext'
GetExtension('C:\mydir.old\') returns ''

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Demonstrate Directory Path Functions

GetFileName

bool GetFileName(const char *path, CkString &outStr);
const char *getFileName(const char *path);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Returns the file name and extension of the specified path string.

GetFileName('C:\mydir\myfile.ext') returns 'myfile.ext'
GetFileName('C:\mydir\') returns ''

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Demonstrate Directory Path Functions

GetFileNameWithoutExtension

bool GetFileNameWithoutExtension(const char *path, CkString &outStr);
const char *getFileNameWithoutExtension(const char *path);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Returns the file name of the specified path string without the extension.

GetFileNameWithoutExtension('C:\mydir\myfile.ext') returns 'myfile'
GetFileNameWithoutExtension('C:\mydir\') returns ''

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Demonstrate Directory Path Functions

GetFileTime

CkDateTime *GetFileTime(const char *path, int which);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.71

Gets one of the following date/times for a file:

0: Last-modified
1: Last-access
2: Creation

The "path" argument indicates which time to return. The values can be 0, 1, or 2.

Note: Linux filesystems do not keep a file's creation date/time. In such a case, this method will return the last-modified time.

Note: The application is responsible for deleting (via the C++ delete operator) the object returned by this method.

Returns NULL on failure

GetLastModified

CkDateTime *GetLastModified(const char *path);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.66

Gets the last-modified date/time for a file. The accuracy of the last-modified data is to the number of seconds.

Note: The application is responsible for deleting (via the C++ delete operator) the object returned by this method.

Returns NULL on failure

GetNumBlocks

int GetNumBlocks(int blockSize);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the number of blocks in the currently open file. The number of bytes per block is specified by blockSize. The number of blocks is the file size divided by the blockSize, plus 1 if the file size is not evenly divisible by blockSize. For example, if the currently open file is 60500 bytes, and if the blockSize is 1000 bytes, then this method returns a count of 61 blocks.

Returns -1 if no file is open. Return 0 if the file is completely empty (0 bytes).

More Information and Examples

File Read Blocks SFTP Upload Large File in Parts

GetTempFilename

bool GetTempFilename(const char *dirPath, const char *prefix, CkString &outStr);
const char *getTempFilename(const char *dirPath, const char *prefix);

Creates a temporary filepath of the form dirPath\prefix_xxxx.TMP Where "xxxx" are random alpha-numeric chars. The returned filepath is guaranteed to not already exist.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

OpenForAppend

bool OpenForAppend(const char *filePath);

Opens a file for appending. If filePath did not already exists, it is created. When an existing file is opened with this method, the contents will not be overwritten and the file pointer is positioned at the end of the file.

If the open/create failed, then error information will be available in the FileOpenError and FileOpenErrorMsg properties.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

OpenForRead

bool OpenForRead(const char *filePath);

Opens a file for reading. The file may contain any type of data (binary or text) and it must already exist. If the open failed, then error information will be available in the FileOpenError and FileOpenErrorMsg properties.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Load Entire File into BinData

OpenForReadWrite

bool OpenForReadWrite(const char *filePath);

Opens a file for reading/writing. If filePath did not already exists, it is created. When an existing file is opened with this method, the contents will not be overwritten, but the file pointer is positioned at the beginning of the file.

If the open/create failed, then error information will be available in the FileOpenError and FileOpenErrorMsg properties.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

OpenForWrite

bool OpenForWrite(const char *filePath);

Opens a file for writing. If filePath did not already exists, it is created. When an existing file is opened with this method, the contents will be overwritten. (For example, calling OpenForWrite on an existing file and then immediately closing the file will result in an empty file.) If the open/create failed, then error information will be available in the FileOpenError and FileOpenErrorMsg properties.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

ReadBinaryToEncoded

bool ReadBinaryToEncoded(const char *filePath, const char *encoding, CkString &outStr);
const char *readBinaryToEncoded(const char *filePath, const char *encoding);

Reads the entire contents of a binary file and returns it as an encoded string (using an encoding such as Base64, Hex, etc.) The encoding may be one of the following strings: base64, hex, qp, or url.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Base64 Encode a File

ReadBlock

bool ReadBlock(int blockIndex, int blockSize, CkByteData &outBytes);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Reads the Nth block of a file, where the size of each block is specified by blockSize. The first block is at blockIndex 0. If the block to be read is the last in the file and there is not enough data to fill an entire block, then the partial block is returned.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

File Read Blocks

ReadBlockBd

bool ReadBlockBd(int blockIndex, int blockSize, CkBinData &bd);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.79

Reads the Nth block of a file, where the size of each block is specified by blockSize. The first block is at blockIndex 0. If the block to be read is the last in the file and there is not enough data to fill an entire block, then the partial block is returned. The file data is appended to the contents of bd.

More Information and Examples

Dropbox Content Hash SFTP Upload Large File in Parts

ReadEntireFile

bool ReadEntireFile(const char *filePath, CkByteData &outBytes);

Reads the entire contents of a binary file and returns the data.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

ReadEntireTextFile

bool ReadEntireTextFile(const char *filePath, const char *charset, CkString &outStrFileContents);
const char *readEntireTextFile(const char *filePath, const char *charset);

Reads the entire contents of a text file, interprets the bytes according to the character encoding specified by charset, and returns the text file as a string.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

ReadNextFragment

int ReadNextFragment(bool startAtBeginning, const char *beginMarker, const char *endMarker, const char *charset, CkStringBuilder &sb);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Scans the currently open file (opened by calling OpenForRead) for the next chunk of text delimited by beginMarker and endMarker. The matched text, including the beginMarker and endMarker are appended to sb. The bytes of the text file are interpreted according to charset. If startAtBeginning equals true, then scanning begins at the start of the file. Otherwise scanning begins starting at the byte following the last matched fragment.

The return value of this function is:
0: No match was found.
1: Found the next matching fragment and appended to sb.
-1: Error reading the file.

To support a common need for use with XML files, the beginMarker is "XML tag aware". If the beginMarker is a string such as "", then it will also match "

More Information and Examples

Efficiently Process a Huge XML File

ReassembleFile

bool ReassembleFile(const char *partsDirPath, const char *partPrefix, const char *partExtension, const char *reassembledFilename);

Reassembles a file previously split by the SplitFile method.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Example: Reassemble a Previously Split File

ReplaceStrings

int ReplaceStrings(const char *filePath, const char *charset, const char *existingString, const char *replacementString);

Replaces all occurrences of existingString with replacementString in a file. The character encoding, such as utf-8, ansi, etc. is specified by charset.

SetCurrentDir

bool SetCurrentDir(const char *dirPath);

Sets the current working directory for the calling process to dirPath.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

SetFileTimes

bool SetFileTimes(const char *filePath, CkDateTime &createTime, CkDateTime &lastAccessTime, CkDateTime &lastModTime);

Sets the create date/time, the last-access date/time, and the last-modified date/time for a file. For non-Windows filesystems where create times are not implemented, the createTime is ignored.

SetLastModified

bool SetLastModified(const char *filePath, CkDateTime &lastModified);

Sets the last-modified date/time for a file.

SplitFile

bool SplitFile(const char *fileToSplit, const char *partPrefix, const char *partExtension, int partSize, const char *destDir);

Splits a file into chunks. To reassemble a split file, see the ReassembleFile method. Please refer to the example below:

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Example: Split File into Chunks

SymlinkCreate

bool SymlinkCreate(const char *targetPath, const char *linkPath);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Creates a symbolic link.

Note: On Windows systems, this is not the same as creating a shortcut. A Windows symbolic link and a Windows shortcut are two different things. Shortcut files are common on Windows, but not symbolic links. Creating a symbolic link requires a special privilege, unless running as administrator. To be able to create symbolic links, your user account or group needs to be listed in secpol.msc → Security Settings → Local Policies → User Rights Assignment → Create symbolic links. However the special setting is not needed when running within the development environment, such as from Visual Studio.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Create Symbolic Link

SymlinkTarget

bool SymlinkTarget(const char *linkPath, CkString &outStr);
const char *symlinkTarget(const char *linkPath);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Returns the full pathname of the file at the end of the linkPath. Also handles Windows shortcut files by returning the absolute path of the target.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Get the Target of a Symbolic Link Get the Target of a Windows Shortcut

TreeDelete

bool TreeDelete(const char *path);

Deletes an entire directory tree (all files and sub-directories).

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Truncate

bool Truncate(void);

Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Truncates the currently open file at the current file position.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

WriteEntireFile

bool WriteEntireFile(const char *filePath, CkByteData &fileData);

Opens/creates filePath, writes fileData, and closes the file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

WriteEntireTextFile

bool WriteEntireTextFile(const char *filePath, const char *textData, const char *charset, bool includedPreamble);

Opens filePath, writes textData using the character encoding specified by charset, and closes the file. If includedPreamble is true and the charset is Unicode or utf-8, then the BOM is included at the beginning of the file.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

Base64 Encode a File