\Header{files}{File Manipulation}
\alias{dir.create}{files}
\alias{file.append}{files}
\alias{file.copy}{files}
\alias{file.create}{files}
\alias{file.exists}{files}
\alias{file.remove}{files}
\alias{file.rename}{files}
\alias{file.symlink}{files}
\keyword{file}{files}
\begin{Description}\relax
These functions provide a low-level interface to the computer's
file system.
\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
file.create(...)
file.exists(...)
file.remove(...)
file.rename(from, to)
file.append(file1, file2)
file.copy(from, to, overwrite = FALSE)
file.symlink(from, to)
dir.create(path, showWarnings = TRUE)
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{..., file1, file2, from, to}] character vectors,
containing file names.
\item[\code{path}] a character vector containing a single path name.
\item[\code{overwrite}] logical; should the destination files be overwritten?
\item[\code{showWarnings}] logical; should the warnings on failure be shown?
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
The \code{...} arguments are concatenated to form one character
string: you can specify the files separately or as one vector.
All of these functions expand path names: see \code{\Link{path.expand}}.

\code{file.create} creates files with the given names if they
do not already exist and truncates them if they do.

\code{file.exists} returns a logical vector indicating whether
the files named by its argument exist.

\code{file.remove} attempts to remove the files named in its
argument.

\code{file.rename} attempts to rename a single file.

\code{file.append} attempts to append the files named by its
second argument to those named by its first.  The \R{} subscript
recycling rule is used to align names given in vectors
of different lengths.

\code{file.copy} works in a similar way to \code{file.append} but with
the arguments in the natural order for copying. Copying to existing
destination files is skipped unless \code{overwrite = TRUE}.
The \code{to} argument can specify a single existing directory.

\code{file.symlink} makes symbolic links on those Unix-like platforms
which support them.  The \code{to} argument can specify a single
existing directory.

\code{dir.create} creates the last element of the path.
\end{Details}
\begin{Value}
\code{dir.create} and \code{file.rename} return a logical,
true for success.

The remaining functions return a logical vector indicating which
operation succeeded for each of the files attempted.

\code{dir.create} will return failure if the directory already exists.
\end{Value}
\begin{Author}\relax
Ross Ihaka, Brian Ripley
\end{Author}
\begin{SeeAlso}\relax
\code{\Link{file.info}}, \code{\Link{file.access}}, \code{\Link{file.path}},
\code{\Link{file.show}}, \code{\Link{list.files}},
\code{\Link{unlink}}, \code{\Link{basename}}, \code{\Link{path.expand}}.
\end{SeeAlso}
\begin{Examples}
\begin{ExampleCode}
cat("file A\n", file="A")
cat("file B\n", file="B")
file.append("A", "B")
file.create("A")
file.append("A", rep("B", 10))
if(interactive()) file.show("A")
file.copy("A", "C")
dir.create("tmp")
file.copy(c("A", "B"), "tmp")
list.files("tmp")
setwd("tmp")
file.remove("B")
file.symlink(file.path("..", c("A", "B")), ".")
setwd("..")
unlink("tmp", recursive=TRUE)
file.remove("A", "B", "C")
\end{ExampleCode}
\end{Examples}

