5.2.13  Working With Files and Directories

The easiest way to read a textfile is to use the file::lines library function, which returns the contents of the file as a list of lines:

    #!/usr/bin/mythryl

    foreach (file::lines "my-script") .{
        print #line;
    };

When run, this script prints itself out, unsurprisingly enough:

    linux$ ./my-script
    #!/usr/bin/mythryl

    foreach (file::lines "my-script") .{
        print #line;
    };

    linux$

Similarly, the easiest way to write a textfile is to use the file::from_lines library function:

    #!/usr/bin/mythryl

    file::from_lines
        "foo.txt"
        [ "abc\n", "def\n", "ghi\n" ];

Running this from the commandline creates a three-line file named foo.txt:

    linux$ ./my-script
    linux$ cat foo.txt
    abc
    def
    ghi
    linux$

The easiest way to modify a textfile is just to combine the above two operations. Suppose, for example, that like Will Strunk (of The Elements of Style fame), you detest the word “utilize” and believe replacing it with “use” is always an improvement.

Use your favorite text editor to create a file named foo.txt containing the following text:

    Will Strunk never used "utilize";
    he always utilized "use".

Here is a script which will change "utilize" to "use" throughout that file:

    #!/usr/bin/mythryl

    fun fix_line( line ) = {
        regex::replace_all ./utilize/ "use" line;
    };

    lines = file::lines "foo.txt";

    lines = map fix_line lines;

    file::from_lines "foo.txt" lines;

And here it is in action:

    linux$ cat foo.txt
    Will Strunk never used "utilize";
    he always utilized "use".

    linux$ ./my-script
    linux$ cat foo.txt
    Will Strunk never used "use";
    he always used "use".

    linux$

If you like one-liners, here is a one-line version of the above script:

    #!/usr/bin/mythryl
    file::from_lines "foo.txt" (map (regex::replace_all ./utilize/ "use") (file::lines "foo.txt"));

The easiest way to get the names of the files in the current directory is to use dir::files:

    linux$ my

    eval:  foreach (dir::files ".") .{ printf "%s\n" #filename; };
    my-script
    foo.txt

    eval:  ^D

    linux$

The easiest way to get the names of all the files in the current directory or any directory under it is to replace dir::files by
dir_tree::files in the above script.