Open a file with unicode path - c++

I'm working under windows 7 with mingw. I have encountered some weird behaviour with unicode filenames. My program needs to be portable, and I'm using boost::filesystem (v 1.53) to handle the file paths.
This has all been going well, until I needed to open files with unicode filenames.
This is not about the content of the file, but the file's name.
I tried the following: For testing I made a folder named C:\UnicodeTest\вячеслав and I tried creating a file inside of it, by appending the file name test.txt to the boost wpath.
For some reason the creation of the file fails. I'm using boost's fstreams and when I try to open the file, the failbit of the stream is set.
Now the funny thing is, that when I append a foldername to the path instead, a call to create_directories() succeeds and creates the correct directory C:\UnicodeTest\вячеслав\folder.
I really don't understand why it won't work with a file. This is the code I use:
boost::filesystem::wpath path;
// find the folder to test
boost::filesystem::wpath dirPath = "C:\\UnicodeTest";
vector<boost::filesystem::wpath> files;
copy(boost::filesystem::directory_iterator(dirPath), boost::filesystem::directory_iterator(), back_inserter(files));
for(boost::filesystem::wpath &file : files)
{
if(boost::filesystem::is_directory(file))
{
path = file;
break;
}
}
// create a path for the folder
boost::filesystem::wpath folderPath = path / "folder";
// this works just fine
boost::filesystem::create_directories(folderPath);
// create a path for the file
boost::filesystem::wpath filePath = path / "test.txt";
boost::filesystem::ofstream stream;
// this fails
stream.open(filePath);
if(!stream)
{
cout << "failed to open file " << path << endl;
}
else
{
cout << "success" << endl;
}

If I understand the issue correctly, the issue of being unable to create a file directly within C:\UnicodeTest\вячеслав occurs when you do not create the folder directory, as illustrated below.
// create a path for the folder
//boost::filesystem::wpath folderPath = path / "folder";
// this works just fine
//boost::filesystem::create_directories(folderPath);
// create a path for the file
boost::filesystem::wpath filePath = path / "test.txt";
I was able to get this to work by making the filename a wchar_t string:
// create a path for the file
boost::filesystem::wpath filePath = path / L"test.txt";

Related

Get all file recursively from C:/

I'm trying to retrieve all files from the C:/ directory using Boost library.
I can retrieve all files when the input is a file path with a directory (e.g : C:\Windows), but I get an error when the specified path is only C:\. I also tried with C: but Boost search file from my project directory and not from the root.
I have also added an exclusion to C:\Windows and this part works great.
So how to launch recursive_directory_iterator from C:\ ?
Here is my code :
//string rootPath = boost::filesystem::current_path().root_directory().string();
string rootPath = "C:";
string exclusionPath = rootPath+"\\"+"Windows";
void myClass::getFile()
{
for (boost::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator end, dir(rootPath); dir != end; ++dir)
{
string filePath = dir->path().string();
if (boost::filesystem::is_regular_file(*dir) && filePath.find(exclusionPath) == string::npos)
{
cout << filePath << endl;
}
}
}
If you are using the c++17 standard library, you can take advantage of the standard filesystem library. It works just like the boost filesystem and the two libraries have a very similar API.
You have to include the filesystem header via
#include <filesystem>
You can recursively iterate through each file in a directory by calling:
for (std::filesystem::directory_entry entry : std::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator(rootPath))
That will give you a directory entry, which, just like the boost directory entry, contains a path. I was able to replicate your example code with the standard library and got a working example like so:
#include <filesystem>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
std::filesystem::path rootPath = "C:";
std::filesystem::path exclusionPath = rootPath / "Windows";
int main()
{
for (std::filesystem::directory_entry entry : std::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator(rootPath))
{
std::string filePath = entry.path().string();
if (std::filesystem::is_regular_file(entry.path()) && filePath.find(exclusionPath.string()) == std::string::npos)
{
std::cout << filePath << std::endl;
}
}
}
As you can see, I converted the strings you use for paths above to paths. This is not necessary but it is better to construct a path up-front, because else every function you call will construct a new path with the string you put into it. Paths weirdly use the / operator to append two paths together, so on Windows
std::filesystem::path exclusionPath = rootPath / "Windows";
will give you C:\Windows.

opening a file in random named folder using c/c++

I'm trying to code a program where it opens and reads a file automatically. But the problem is the file is stored in a folder which name is unknown. I only know where the folder is located and the file's name. How to get to that file's path in char* ?
Edit: example: d:\files\<random folder>\data.txt
I don't know the name of random folder but I know that it exists in d:\files
Since this is tagged windows, you might as well use the Windows API functions:
FindFirstFile()
FindNextFile()
to enumerate and loop through all the files in a given directory.
To check for a directory, look at dwFileAttributes contained in the WIN32_FIND_DATA structure (filled by the calls to Find...File()). But make sure to skip . and .. directories. If needed, this can be done recursively.
You can check the links for some examples, or see Listing the Files in a Directory.
In case you are using MFC, you can use CFileFind (which is a wrapper around the API functions):
CFileFind finder;
BOOL bWorking = finder.FindFile(_T("*.*"));
while (bWorking)
{
bWorking = finder.FindNextFile();
TRACE(_T("%s\n"), (LPCTSTR)finder.GetFileName());
}
Just for fun, I implemented this using the new, experimental <filesystem> FS Technical Specification supported by GCC 5.
#include <iostream>
#include <experimental/filesystem>
// for readability
namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;
int main(int, char* argv[])
{
if(!argv[1])
{
std::cerr << "require 2 parameters, search directory and filename\n";
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
fs::path search_dir = argv[1];
if(!fs::is_directory(search_dir))
{
std::cerr << "First parameter must be a directory: " << search_dir << '\n';
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
if(!argv[2])
{
std::cerr << "Expected filename to search for\n";
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
// file to search for
fs::path file_name = argv[2];
const fs::directory_iterator dir_end; // directory end sentinel
// used to iterate through each subdirectory of search_dir
fs::directory_iterator dir_iter(search_dir);
for(; dir_iter != dir_end; ++dir_iter)
{
// skip non directories
if(!fs::is_directory(dir_iter->path()))
continue;
// check directory for file
// iterate through files in this subdirectory dir_iter->path()
auto file_iter = fs::directory_iterator(dir_iter->path());
for(; file_iter != dir_end; ++file_iter)
{
// ignore directories and wrong filenames
if(fs::is_directory(file_iter->path())
|| file_iter->path().filename() != file_name)
continue;
// Ok we found it (the first one)
std::cout << "path: " << file_iter->path().string() << '\n';
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
}
// Not found
std::cout << file_name << " was not found in " << search_dir.string() << '\n';
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
The idea is: list the directories under d:\files and try to open
the file in each directory.
There isn't (yet) a standard C++ way of getting all the existing files/directories. A crude but easy way of doing this would be
system("dir d:\\files /b /ad > tmpfile");
This lists all directories (/ad), redirected to a temporary file. Then open the file:
std::ifstream list("tmpfile");
And read it:
std::string dirname;
std::string filename;
while (std::getline(list, dirname))
{
filename = "d:\\files\\" + dirname + "\\data.txt";
if ( ... file exists ... )
break;
}
I call this method crude because it has problems that are hard/impossible to fix:
It overwrites a potentially useful file
It doesn't work if current directory is read-only
It will only work in Windows
It might be possible to use _popen and fgets instead of redirecting to file.

C++ working with files and directory

I have school project and i need work with files. First of all i need open csv file which is in directory "vstupnidata" in root of my program directory.
My solution which doesn't work:
string directory= "..\\vstupnidata\\";
string file= "ucty2015.csv";
ifstream VstupniSoubor((directory+file).c_str());
if (!(VstupniSoubor.is_open())){ //I am always here
VypisChybyV1();
return 1;
}
When i change it to this and dont use directory "vstupnidata", everything is OK but i need open it from directory:
string directory= "";
string file= "ucty2015.csv";
ifstream VstupniSoubor((directory+file).c_str());
if (!(VstupniSoubor.is_open())){
VypisChybyV1();
return 1;
}

stat() doesn't find a file in c++

on Linux 12.04
I have an executable file located in say:
/a/b/exe
and a config file on
/a/b/config
when doing:
cd /a/b/
./exe
everything's ok and the stat function finds the file config on /a/b/
HOWEVER,when running from root
/a/b/exe
the stat doesn't find the config file
any idea why?
it makes it impossible to run the binary using a script that isn't ran from the folder of the exe.
Edit
The call looks like this:
struct stat stFileInfo;
bool blnReturn;
int intStat;
// Attempt to get the file attributes
intStat = stat(strFilename.c_str(),&stFileInfo);
if(intStat == 0) {
// We were able to get the file attributes
// so the file obviously exists.
blnReturn = true;
} else {
// We were not able to get the file attributes.
// This may mean that we don't have permission to
// access the folder which contains this file. If you
// need to do that level of checking, lookup the
// return values of stat which will give you
// more details on why stat failed.
blnReturn = false;
}
In first case cd ..., run exe you change current working directory before executing the program, in second case you launch exe without changing current working directory, and I think in your program you use a relative path to open your config(for example ./config or just config) and it can't find it from current working directory. easiest workaround is to change working directory at start of your app:
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
std::string s( argv[0] ); // path to the program
std::string::size_type n = s.rfind( '/' );
if( n != std::string::npos ) {
std::system( ("cd " + s.substr(0, n)).c_str() );
}
// rest of your code
}

how to search the computer for files and folders

i need a way to search the computer for files like Windows Explorer. i want my program to search lets say hard drive c:. i need it to search C:\ for folders and files (just the ones you could see in c:\ then if the user clicks on a file on the list like the folder test (C:\test) it would search test and let the user see what files/folders are in it.
Since you mentioned windows, the most straight forward winapi way to do it is with FindFirstFile and FindNextFile functions.
edit: Here's an example that shows you how to enumerate all files/folders in a directory.
#include <Windows.h>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
WIN32_FIND_DATA file;
HANDLE search_handle=FindFirstFile(L"C:\\*",&file);
if (search_handle)
{
do
{
std::wcout << file.cFileName << std::endl;
}while(FindNextFile(search_handle,&file));
FindClose(search_handle);
}
}
This will be OS dependent. The SO question
How can I get a list of files in a directory using C or C++?
handles this problem well. You can download DIRENT here.
Now that you have this, I'd recommend recursively searching for a file with a DFS/BFS algorithm. You can assume the whole directory structure is a tree where each file is a leaf node and each subdirectory is an internal node.
So all you have to do is,
Get the list of files/folders in a directory with a function such as:
void getFilesFolders(vector<string> & dir_list, const string & folder_name)
If it's a directory, go to 1 with the directory name
If it's a file, terminate if it's the file you're looking for, else move on to the next file.
boost::filesystem can be a cross-platform solution for that (check out for such functions in it).
You can use Directory class members to do this with C# or managed C++. See the following MSDN article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307009
If you wish to use C++ with MFC you can use CFileFind
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f33e1618%28v=VS.80%29.aspx
You'll have to supply your own browse window to present the file system tree.
Or you can use one of the directory/file controls to do both for you.
#include <Windows.h>
#include <iostream>
int FindF(char* pDirectory)
{
char szFindPath[MAX_PATH] = {0};
strcpy(szFindPath, pDirectory);
strcat(szFindPath, "\\*");
WIN32_FIND_DATA file;
HANDLE search_handle=FindFirstFile(szFindPath,&file);
if (search_handle)
{
do
{
if(file.dwFileAttributes == FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
{
strcpy(szFindPath, pDirectory);
strcat(szFindPath, "\\");
strcat(szFindPath, file.cFileName);
FindF(szFindPath);
}
std::wcout << file.cFileName << std::endl;
}while(FindNextFile(search_handle,&file));
CloseHandle(search_handle);
}
}
There really is no need to use 3rd party library to accomplish this. This is a short, independent function which lists all files (with their paths) in a directory, including subdiretories' files. std::string folderName has to finish with \, and if you want to list all files on computer, just create a loop in calling function along with GetLogicalDriveStrings (It returns strings with \, so it couldn't be more convenient in this case).
void FindAllFiles(std::string folderName)
{
WIN32_FIND_DATA FileData;
std::string folderNameWithSt = folderName + "*";
HANDLE FirstFile = FindFirstFile(folderNameWithSt.c_str(), &FileData);
if (FirstFile != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
do {
if (strcmp(FileData.cFileName, ".") != 0 && strcmp(FileData.cFileName, "..") != 0)
{
if(FileData.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
{
std::string NewPath = folderName + FileData.cFileName;
NewPath = NewPath + "\\";
FindAllFiles(NewPath);
}
else
{
std::cout /*<< folderName*/ << FileData.cFileName << std::endl;
}
}
} while(FindNextFile(FirstFile, &FileData));
}
}
This is ASCII version, remember that files and folders can be named in Unicode