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| Filesystem Library Version 3

Filesystem Home Releases Reference Tutorial FAQ Portability V3 Intro V3 Design Deprecated

# Reference Documentation

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## Introduction

This reference documentation describes components that C++ programs may use to perform operations involving file systems, including paths, regular files, and directories.

> C++11 Support This reference documentation is written as if all compilers supported C++11. Where possible, the implementation falls back to C++03 if a C++11 feature is not available.
> C++11 Feature | Action if not supported by compiler
> `noexcept` | Keyword omitted.
> `constexpr` | Keyword omitted.
> R-value references | Function signature omitted.
> New character types | The `boost::filesystem` interface doesn't use the new types directly. It does use `u16string` and `u32string` in namespace `boost`. These are typedefs to `std::u16string` and `std::u32string` for C++11, or to `std::basic_string<boost::u16_t>` and `std::basic_string<boost::u32_t>` for C++03.
> Defaulted and deleted functions | Workaround replacement functions provided.
> Initializer lists | Not currently used.
> Variadic templates | Not currently used.
> Range-based for statements | Supporting functions always provided; they do no harm even for C++03 compilers.

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### File streams - <boost/filesystem/fstream.hpp>

Replacements are provided for the file stream classes from the C++ standard library's `<fstream>` header. These replacement classes publicly inherit from the standard library classes. In the Boost.Filesystem version, constructors and open functions take `const path&` arguments instead of `const char*` arguments. There are no other differences in syntax or semantics.

    $NAMESPACE_BEGIN;
        template < class charT, class traits = std::char_traits<charT> >
        class basic_filebuf : public std::basic_filebuf<charT,traits>
        {
        public:
          basic_filebuf<charT,traits>*
            open(const path& p, std::ios_base::openmode mode);
        };

        template < class charT, class traits = std::char_traits<charT> >
        class basic_ifstream : public std::basic_ifstream<charT,traits>
        {
        public:
          explicit basic_ifstream(const path& p, std::ios_base::openmode mode=std::ios_base::in)
          void open(const path& p, std::ios_base::openmode mode=std::ios_base::in);
        };

        template < class charT, class traits = std::char_traits<charT> >
        class basic_ofstream : public std::basic_ofstream<charT,traits>
        {
        public:
          explicit basic_ofstream(const path& p, std::ios_base::openmode mode=std::ios_base::out);
          void open(const path& p, std::ios_base::openmode mode=std::ios_base::out);
        };

        template < class charT, class traits = std::char_traits<charT> >
        class basic_fstream : public std::basic_fstream<charT,traits>
        {
        public:
          explicit basic_fstream(const path& p,
            std::ios_base::openmode mode=std::ios_base::in | std::ios_base::out);
          void open(const path& p,
            std::ios_base::openmode mode=std::ios_base::in | std::ios_base::out);
        };

        typedef basic_filebuf<char> filebuf;
        typedef basic_ifstream<char> ifstream;
        typedef basic_ofstream<char> ofstream;
        typedef basic_fstream<char> fstream;

        typedef basic_filebuf<wchar_t> wfilebuf;
        typedef basic_ifstream<wchar_t> wifstream;
        typedef basic_fstream<wchar_t> wfstream;
        typedef basic_ofstream<wchar_t> wofstream;

    $NAMESPACE_END;

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© Copyright Beman Dawes, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011

Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. See www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt

Revised 16 July 2012

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