Handling file paths cross platform

Question

Do any C++ GNU standalone classes exist which handle paths cross platform? My applications build on Windows and LInux. Our configuration files refer to another file in a seperate directory. I'd like to be able to read the path for the other configuration file into a class which would work on both Linux or Windows.

Which class would offer the smallest footprint to translate paths to use on either system? Thanks

Answer 1

Unless you're using absolute paths, there's no need to translate at all - Windows automatically converts forward slashes into backslashes, so if you use relative paths with forward slash path separators, you'll be golden. You should really avoid absolute paths if at all possible.

Answer 2

try boost::filesystem

Answer 3

Filesystem library in boost will probably help you.

Answer 4

There are many ways, IMHO the correct answer is to redesign your program to avoid manipulating paths. I posted an answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/40980510/2345997 which is relevant.

ways:

1. Add a command line option which allows a user to specify the path in question instead of reading it from a config file.
2. Add a command line option so that the user can specify a base path. Paths in the config file will be interpreted as located under this base path.
3. Split your config file into three. One file will have cross platform configuration, another file will have windows only configuration and a final file will have Linux only configuration. Then the user can specify the correct path for both Windows and Linux. On windows your program will read the cross-platform config file and the windows only config file. On Linux it will read the cross-platform file and the Linux only config file.
4. Add preprocessing to your config file parsing. This will allow you to have one config file where the user can make your program ignore some of the lines in the file depending on which OS the program is running on. Therefore, the user will be able to specify the path to the file twice. Once for Linux, and once for Windows.
5. Change the design so that the files are always located in the same directory as your executable - then the user only specifies file names in the config file rather than paths to files.
6. Use a simple function that switches "/" to "\". Then document to the user that they must specify paths as Linux paths and this transformation will be applied for windows.
7. Create your own path mini-language for this and document it to the user. E.g: "/" - specifies a directory separator, {root} - expands to the root of the filesystem, {cwd} - expands to the current directory, {app} - expands to the path to your application etc... Then the user can specify file paths like: {root}/myfiles/bob.txt on both platforms.
8. Some paths will work on both platforms. E.g: relative paths like ../my files/bill.txt. Restrict your application to only work with these paths. Document this limitation and how your application handles paths to the user.