Package: libpath-class-perl (0.15-1) [universe]

Cross-platform path specification manipulation

Path::Class is a module for manipulation of file and directory specifications (strings describing their locations, like '/home/ken/foo.txt' or 'C:\Windows\Foo.txt') in a cross-platform manner. It supports pretty much every platform Perl runs on, including Unix, Windows, Mac, VMS, Epoc, Cygwin, OS/2, and NetWare.

The well-known module File::Spec also provides this service, but it's sort of awkward to use well, so people sometimes avoid it, or use it in a way that won't actually work properly on platforms significantly different than the ones they've tested their code on.

In fact, Path::Class uses File::Spec internally, wrapping all the unsightly details so you can concentrate on your application code. Whereas File::Spec provides functions for some common path manipulations, Path::Class provides an object-oriented model of the world of path specifications and their underlying semantics. File::Spec doesn't create any objects, and its classes represent the different ways in which paths must be manipulated on various platforms (not a very intuitive concept). Path::Class creates objects representing files and directories, and provides methods that relate them to each other.