9 Files and Filenames

Files are identified by filenames, which are represented in GAP as strings. Filenames can be created directly by the user or a program, but of course this is operating system dependent.

Filenames for some files can be constructed in a system independent way using the following functions. This is done by first getting a directory object for the directory the file shall reside in, and then constructing the filename. However, it is sometimes necessary to construct filenames of files in subdirectories relative to a given directory object. In this case the directory separator is always '/' even under DOS or MacOS.

Section Directories describes how to construct directory objects for the common GAP and system directories. Using the command Filename described in section Filename it is possible to construct a filename pointing to a file in these directories. There are also functions to test for accessibility of files, see File Access.

Sections

1. Portability
2. GAP Root Directory
3. Directories
4. Filename
5. Special Filenames
6. File Access
7. File Operations

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