Node: File Operations on Open and Closed Streams, Next: , Previous: Coercion of Streams to Pathnames, Up: File System Concepts



File Operations on Open and Closed Streams

Many functions that perform file operations accept either open or closed streams as arguments; see Stream Arguments to Standardized Functions.

Of these, the functions in Figure 20-2 treat open and closed streams differently.

  delete-file  file-author      probe-file  
  directory    file-write-date  truename    


  Figure 20--2: File Functions that Treat Open and Closed Streams Differently

Since treatment of open streams by the file system may vary considerably between implementations, however, a closed stream might be the most reliable kind of argument for some of these functions--in particular, those in Figure 20-3. For example, in some file systems, open files are written under temporary names and not renamed until closed and/or are held invisible until closed. In general, any code that is intended to be portable should use such functions carefully.

  directory  probe-file  truename  


  Figure 20--3: File Functions where Closed Streams Might Work Best