Normalize file paths

Checks the specified path for formatting consistencies:

1. use slash instead of backslash;

2. do tilde etc. expansion;

3. remove trailing slash.

normPath(path)

# S4 method for character
normPath(path)

# S4 method for list
normPath(path)

# S4 method for NULL
normPath(path)

# S4 method for missing
normPath()

# S4 method for logical
normPath(path)

normPathRel(path)

Arguments

path

A character vector of filepaths.

Value

Character vector of cleaned up filepaths.

Details

Additionally, normPath() attempts to create a absolute paths, whereas normPathRel() maintains relative paths.

d> getwd()
[1] "/home/achubaty/Documents/GitHub/PredictiveEcology/reproducible"
d> normPathRel("potato/chips")
[1] "potato/chips"
d> normPath("potato/chips")
[1] "/home/achubaty/Documents/GitHub/PredictiveEcology/reproducible/potato/chips"

Examples

## normalize file paths
paths <- list("./aaa/zzz",
              "./aaa/zzz/",
              ".//aaa//zzz",
              ".//aaa//zzz/",
              ".\\\\aaa\\\\zzz",
              ".\\\\aaa\\\\zzz\\\\",
              file.path(".", "aaa", "zzz"))

checked <- normPath(paths)
length(unique(checked)) ## 1; all of the above are equivalent
#> [1] 3

## check to see if a path exists
tmpdir <- file.path(tempdir(), "example_checkPath")

dir.exists(tmpdir) ## FALSE
#> [1] FALSE
tryCatch(checkPath(tmpdir, create = FALSE), error = function(e) FALSE) ## FALSE
#> [1] FALSE

checkPath(tmpdir, create = TRUE)
#> [1] "/tmp/RtmpxA3jdR/example_checkPath"
dir.exists(tmpdir) ## TRUE
#> [1] TRUE

unlink(tmpdir, recursive = TRUE)