class KStandardDirs

Site-independent access to standard KDE directories. More...

Definition#include <kstddirs.h>
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Detailed Description

This is one of the most central classes in kdelibs as it provides a basic service: It knows where the files reside on the user's hard disk. And it's meant to be the only one that knows -- to make the real location as transparent as possible to both the user and the applications.

To this end it insulates the application from all information and applications always refer to a file with a resource type (e.g. icon) and a filename (e.g. khexdit.xpm). In an ideal world the application would make no assumption where this file is and leave it up to KStandardDirs::findResource("apps", "Home.desktop") to apply this knowledge to return /opt/kde/share/applnk/Home.desktop or locate("data", "kgame/background.jpg") to return /opt/kde/share/apps/kgame/background.jpg

The main idea behind KStandardDirs is that there are several toplevel prefixes below which the files lie. One of these prefixes is the one where the user installed kdelibs, one is where the application was installed, and one is $HOME/.kde, but there may be even more. Under these prefixes there are several well defined suffixes where specific resource types are to be found. For example, for the resource type "html" the suffixes could be share/doc/HTML and share/doc/kde/HTML. So the search algorithm basicly appends to each prefix each registered suffix and tries to locate the file there. To make the thing even more complex, it's also possible to register absolute paths that KStandardDirs looks up after not finding anything in the former steps. They can be useful if the user wants to provide specific directories that aren't in his $HOME/.kde directory for, for example, icons.

Standard resources that kdelibs allocates are:

A type that is added by the class KApplication if you use it, is appdata. This one makes the use of the type data a bit easier as it appends the name of the application. So while you had to locate("data", "appname/filename") so you can also write locate("appdata", "filename") if your KApplication instance is called "appname". Please note though that you cannot use the "appdata" type if you intend to use it in an applet for Kicker because 'appname' would be "Kicker" instead of the applet's name. Therefore, for applets, you've got to work around this by using locate("data", "appletname/filename").

KStandardDirs supports the following environment variables:

 KStandardDirs ( )

KStandardDirs

KStandardDirs constructor. It just initializes the caches.

 ~KStandardDirs ()

~KStandardDirs

[virtual]

KStandardDirs destructor.

void  addPrefix ( const QString& dir )

addPrefix

Add another search dir to front of the fsstnd list.

Parameters:
dirThe directory to append relative paths to.

bool  addResourceType ( const char *type, const QString& relativename )

addResourceType

Add suffixes for types.

You may add as many as you need, but it is advised that there is exactly one to make writing definite. All basic types (kde_default) are added by addKDEDefaults(), but for those you can add more relative paths as well.

The later a suffix is added, the higher its priority. Note, that the suffix should end with / but doesn't have to start with one (as prefixes should end with one). So adding a suffix for app_pics would look like KGlobal::dirs()->addResourceType("app_pics", "share/app/pics");

Parameters:
typeSpecifies a short descriptive string to access files of this type.
relativenameSpecifies a directory relative to the root of the KFSSTND.

bool  addResourceDir ( const char *type, const QString& absdir)

addResourceDir

Add absolute path at the end of the search path for particular types (for example in case of icons where the user specifies extra paths).

You shouldn't need this function in 99% of all cases besides adding user-given paths.

Parameters:
typeSpecifies a short descriptive string to access files of this type.
absdirPoints to directory where to look for this specific type. Non-existant directories may be saved but pruned.

QString  findResource ( const char *type, const QString& filename )

findResource

[const]

Try to find resource in the following order:

The filename should be a filename relative to the base dir for resources. So is a way to get the path to libkdecore.la to findResource("lib", "libkdecore.la"). KStandardDirs will then look into the subdir lib of all elements of all prefixes ($KDEDIRS) for a file libkdecore.la and return the path to the first one it finds (e.g. /opt/kde/lib/libkdecore.la)

Parameters:
typeThe type of the wanted resource
filenameA relative filename of the resource.

Returns: A full path to the filename specified in the second argument, or QString::null if not found.

Q_UINT32  calcResourceHash ( const char *type, const QString& filename, bool deep)

calcResourceHash

[const]

Returns a number that identifies this version of the resource. When a change is made to the resource this number will change.

Parameters:
typeThe type of the wanted resource
filenameA relative filename of the resource.
deepIf true, all resources are taken into account otherwise only the one returned by findResource().

Returns: A number identifying the current version of the resource.

QStringList  findDirs ( const char *type, const QString& reldir )

findDirs

[const]

Try to find all directories whose names consist of the specified type and a relative path. So would findDirs("apps", "Settings") return

Note that it appends / to the end of the directories, so you can use this right away as directory names.

Parameters:
typeThe type of the base directory.
reldirRelative directory.

Returns: A list of matching directories, or an empty list if the resource specified is not found.

QString  findResourceDir ( const char *type, const QString& filename)

findResourceDir

[const]

Try to find the directory the file is in. It works the same as findResource(), but it doesn't return the filename but the name of the directory.

This way the application can access a couple of files that have been installed into the same directory without having to look for each file.

findResourceDir("lib", "libkdecore.la") would return the path of the subdir libkdecore.la is found first in (e.g. /opt/kde/lib/)

Returns: The directory where the file specified in the second argument is located, or QString::null if the type of resource specified is unknown or the resource cannot be found.

QStringList  findAllResources ( const char *type, const QString& filter = QString::null, bool recursive = false, bool uniq = false)

findAllResources

[const]

Try to find all resources with the specified type.

The function will look into all specified directories and return all filenames in these directories.

Parameters:
typeThe type of resource to locate directories for.
filterOnly accept filenames that fit to filter. The filter may consist of an optional directory and a QRexExp wildcard expression. E.g. "images\*.jpg"
recursiveSpecifies if the function should decend into subdirectories.
uniqIf specified, only return items which have unique suffixes - supressing duplicated filenames.

Returns: A list of directories matching the resource specified, or an empty list if the resource type is unknown.

QStringList  findAllResources ( const char *type, const QString& filter, bool recursive, bool uniq, QStringList &relPaths)

findAllResources

[const]

Try to find all resources with the specified type.

The function will look into all specified directories and return all filenames (full and relative paths) in these directories.

Parameters:
typeThe type of resource to locate directories for.
filterOnly accept filenames that fit to filter. The filter may consist of an optional directory and a QRexExp wildcard expression. E.g. "images\*.jpg"
recursiveSpecifies if the function should decend into subdirectories.
uniqIf specified, only return items which have unique suffixes.
listOf relative paths for the given type.
relPathsThe list to store the relative paths into These can be used later to locate the file

Returns: A list of directories matching the resource specified, or an empty list if the resource type is unknown.

QString  findExe ( const QString& appname, const QString& pathstr=QString::null, bool ignoreExecBit=false )

findExe

[static]

Find the executable in the system path.

A valid executable must be a file and have its executable bit set.

Parameters:
appnameThe name of the executable file for which to search.
pathstrThe path which will be searched. If this is 0 (default), the $PATH environment variable will be searched.
ignoreExecBitIf true, an existing file will be returned even if its executable bit is not set.

Returns: The path of the executable. If it was not found, it will return QString::null.

See also: findAllExe()

int  findAllExe ( QStringList& list, const QString& appname, const QString& pathstr=QString::null, bool ignoreExecBit=false )

findAllExe

[static]

Find all occurences of an executable in the system path.

Parameters:
listWill be filled with the pathnames of all the executables found. Will be empty if the executable was not found.
appnameThe name of the executable for which to search.
pathstrThe path list which will be searched. If this is 0 (default), the $PATH environment variable will be searched.
ignoreExecBitIf true, an existing file will be returned even if its executable bit is not set.

Returns: The number of executables found, 0 if none were found.

See also: findExe()

void  addKDEDefaults ()

addKDEDefaults

This function adds the defaults that are used by the current KDE version.

It's a series of addResourceTypes() and addPrefix() calls. You normally wouldn't call this function because it's called for you from KGlobal.

bool  addCustomized (KConfig *config)

addCustomized

Read customized entries out of the given config object and add them via addResourceDirs().

Parameters:
configThe object the entries are read from. This should contain global config files

Returns: true if new config paths have been added from config.

QStringList  resourceDirs (const char *type)

resourceDirs

[const]

This function is used internally by almost all other function as it serves and fills the directories cache.

Returns: The list of possible directories for the specified type. The function updates the cache if possible. If the resource type specified is unknown, it will return an empty list. Note, that the directories are asured to exist beside the save location, which may not exist, but is returned anyway.

QStringList  allTypes ()

allTypes

[const]

This function will return a list of all the types that KStandardDirs supports.

Returns: All types that KDE supports

QString  saveLocation (const char *type, const QString& suffix = QString::null, bool create = true)

saveLocation

[const]

Find a location to save files into for the given type in the user's home directory.

Parameters:
suffixA subdirectory name. Makes it easier for you to create subdirectories. You can't pass filenames here, you _have_ to pass directory names only and add possible filename in that directory yourself. A directory name always has a trailing slash ('/').
createIf set, saveLocation() will create the directories needed (including those given by suffix).

Returns: A path where resources of the specified type should be saved, or QString::null if the resource type is unknown.

bool  makeDir (const QString& dir, int mode = 0755)

makeDir

[static]

Recursively create still-missing directories in the given path.

The resulting permissions will depend on the current umask setting. permission = mode & ~umask.

Parameters:
dirAbsolute path of the directory to be made.
modeDirectory permissions.

QString  kde_default (const char *type)

kde_default

[static]

This returns a default relative path for the standard KDE resource types. Below is a list of them so you get an idea of what this is all about.

Returns: Static default for the specified resource. You should probably be using locate() or locateLocal() instead.

See also: locate(), locateLocal()

QString  kfsstnd_prefixes ()

kfsstnd_prefixes

QString  localkdedir ()

localkdedir

[const]

Don't use this function if you can use locateLocal

Returns: the toplevel directory in which KStandardDirs will store things. Most likely $HOME/.kde

bool  exists (const QString &fullPath)

exists

[static]

checks for existance and accessability faster than creating a QFileInfo first