Directory operations

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Create directory

dir := "my_dir"
err := os.Mkdir(dir, 0755)
if err != nil {
    fmt.Printf("os.Mkdir('%s') failed with '%s'\n", dir)
}
dir := filepath.Join("topdir", "subdir")
err := os.MkdirAll(dir, 0755)
if err != nil {
    fmt.Printf("os.MkdirAll('%s') failed with '%s'\n", dir)
}

os.Mkdir only succeeds if parent directory of dir already exists.

os.MkdirAll will create all intermediary directories.

0755 describes permissions for the directory.

Those are Unix style permissions in octal format.

Let’s deconstruct parts of 0755 * 0 means this is a number in octal format. That means that each number is in 0-7 range (compare to regular decimal notation where each number is in 0-9 range) * 7 is permissions for the creator of the file. It’s a bitmask 4 + 2 + 1. 4 means read permissions, 2 means write permission, 1 means that directory can be traversed. When combined it means read/write/traverse access * 5 is permissions for the group that user belongs to. I.e. every user that also belongs to the same group will have those permissions. 4 + 1 means read and traverse permissions, but not write permissions * last 5 is for everyone. Again, 5 means read and traverse permissions

Delete directory

dir := "my_dir"
err := os.Remove(dir)
if err != nil {
    fmt.Printf("os.Remove('%s') failed with '%s'\n", path, err)
}

os.Remove only works for empty directories i.e. directories without any files of sub-directories.

dir := "my_dir"
err := os.RemoveAll(dir)
if err != nil {
    fmt.Printf("os.RemoveAll('%s') failed with '%s'\n", path, err)
}

os.RemoveAll removes the directory and all its children (files and sub-directories).

List files in a directory

To list files and directories in a given directory we can use ioutil.ReadDir:

func main() {
	dir := "."
	fileInfos, err := ioutil.ReadDir(dir)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("ioutil.ReadDir('%s') failed with '%s'\n", dir, err)
	}
	for i, fi := range fileInfos {
		if i < 4 {
			fmt.Printf("Path: %s, is dir: %v, size: %d bytes\n", fi.Name(), fi.IsDir(), fi.Size())
		}
	}
}
Path: app, is dir: false, size: 2206428 bytes
Path: go.mod, is dir: false, size: 21 bytes
Path: main.go, is dir: false, size: 400 bytes

List files recursively

func main() {
	nShown := 0
	err := filepath.Walk(".", func(path string, fi os.FileInfo, err error) error {
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		if nShown > 4 {
			return nil
		}
		nShown++
		fmt.Printf("Path: %s, is dir: %v, size: %d bytes\n", fi.Name(), fi.IsDir(), fi.Size())
		return nil
	})

	if err != nil {
		fmt.Printf("filepath.Walk failed with '%s'\n", err)
	}
}
Path: ., is dir: true, size: 0 bytes
Path: app, is dir: false, size: 2179446 bytes
Path: go.mod, is dir: false, size: 21 bytes
Path: main.go, is dir: false, size: 466 bytes

To visit files in a directory recursively use filepath.Walk.

You provide a callback function that will be called for every file and directory under directory.

Callback function is called even for files/directories that we can’t read e.g. due to insufficient permissions.

We can end traversal early by returning non-nil error from callback function.

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