Documentation

Filesystem Helpers

File and directory operations including path checks, manipulation, and reading.

Section

exists / is_file / is_dir

Check if paths exist. These are essential for the is_* check functions in recipes.

Command

rhai

// Check if anything exists at path
if exists("/usr/bin/gcc") {
    set_env("CC", "gcc");
}

// Check specifically for a file
if is_file(join_path(ctx.source_dir, "configure")) {
    shell_in(ctx.source_dir, "./configure");
}

// Check specifically for a directory
if is_dir(join_path(BUILD_DIR, "vendor")) {
    log("Vendor directory exists");
}

Aliases: file_exists() = is_file(), dir_exists() = is_dir()

Section

mkdir

Create a directory and all parent directories (like mkdir -p).

Command

rhai

mkdir(BUILD_DIR);
mkdir(join_path(PREFIX, "bin"));
mkdir(join_path(PREFIX, "share/man/man1"));

Section

rm

Remove files or directories. Accepts a path string.

Command

rhai

rm(join_path(BUILD_DIR, "tmp"));
rm(join_path(ctx.source_dir, "build"));

Section

mv

Move or rename a file.

Command

rhai

mv(
    join_path(ctx.source_dir, "config.example"),
    join_path(ctx.source_dir, "config.toml")
);

Section

ln

Create a symbolic link. First argument is the target, second is the link name.

Command

rhai

// Create symlink: /usr/local/bin/python -> python3
ln(
    join_path(PREFIX, "bin/python3"),
    join_path(PREFIX, "bin/python")
);

Section

chmod

Change file permissions. Takes octal mode as integer.

Command

rhai

chmod(join_path(PREFIX, "bin/myapp"), 0o755);   // rwxr-xr-x
chmod(join_path(PREFIX, "etc/secret.key"), 0o600);  // rw-------

Section

read_file / read_file_or_empty

Read a file's contents as a string. read_file_or_empty() returns empty string if file doesn't exist instead of throwing.

Command

rhai

// Read kernel version from file
let version = trim(read_file(join_path(build_dir, "include/config/kernel.release")));

// Read with fallback to empty
let cached_hash = read_file_or_empty(join_path(build_dir, ".hash"));
if cached_hash == "" {
    // No cached hash, need to rebuild
}

Section

write_file / append_file

Write or append content to a file.

Command

rhai

write_file(join_path(build_dir, ".hash"), new_hash);
append_file(join_path(PREFIX, "etc/shells"), "/bin/zsh\n");

Section

glob_list

List files matching a glob pattern. Returns an array of paths.

Command

rhai

let sources = glob_list(join_path(ctx.source_dir, "src/*.c"));
for file in sources {
    log("Found: " + file);
}