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GHC 10.0.0.20260917 · lts/ghc-10.0.x · 04404a6 · 2026-10-19

OsPath initialisation and transformation

newtypenewtype OsString

Newtype representing short operating system specific strings.

Internally this is either WindowsString or PosixString, depending on the platform. Both use unpinned ShortByteString for efficiency.

The constructor is only exported via System.OsString.Internal.Types, since dealing with the internals isn't generally recommended, but supported in case you need to write platform specific code.

Instances9Eq, Ord, Show, Generic, Semigroup, Monoid, …

Partial unicode friendly encoding.

On windows this encodes as UTF16-LE (strictly), which is a pretty good guess. On unix this encodes as UTF8 (strictly), which is a good guess.

Throws an EncodingException if encoding fails. If the input does not contain surrogate chars, you can use unsafeEncodeUtf.

Partial unicode friendly decoding.

On windows this decodes as UTF16-LE (strictly), which is a pretty good guess. On unix this decodes as UTF8 (strictly), which is a good guess.

Throws a EncodingException if decoding fails.

valueos :: String -> OsString

Fallibly converts String to OsString. Only intended to be used on literals.

Common utility functions

value(</>) :: OsPath -> OsPath -> OsPath

Combine two paths with a path separator. If the second path starts with a path separator or a drive letter, then it returns the second. The intention is that readFile (dir </> file) will access the same file as setCurrentDirectory dir; readFile file.

Posix:   "/directory" </> "file.ext" == "/directory/file.ext"
Windows: "/directory" </> "file.ext" == "/directory\\file.ext"
         "directory" </> "/file.ext" == "/file.ext"
Valid x => (takeDirectory x </> takeFileName x) `equalFilePath` x

Combined:

Posix:   "/" </> "test" == "/test"
Posix:   "home" </> "bob" == "home/bob"
Posix:   "x:" </> "foo" == "x:/foo"
Windows: "C:\\foo" </> "bar" == "C:\\foo\\bar"
Windows: "home" </> "bob" == "home\\bob"

Not combined:

Posix:   "home" </> "/bob" == "/bob"
Windows: "home" </> "C:\\bob" == "C:\\bob"

Not combined (tricky):

On Windows, if a filepath starts with a single slash, it is relative to the root of the current drive. In [1], this is (confusingly) referred to as an absolute path. The current behavior of </> is to never combine these forms.

Windows: "home" </> "/bob" == "/bob"
Windows: "home" </> "\\bob" == "\\bob"
Windows: "C:\\home" </> "\\bob" == "\\bob"

On Windows, from [1]: "If a file name begins with only a disk designator but not the backslash after the colon, it is interpreted as a relative path to the current directory on the drive with the specified letter." The current behavior of </> is to never combine these forms.

Windows: "D:\\foo" </> "C:bar" == "C:bar"
Windows: "C:\\foo" </> "C:bar" == "C:bar"
value(<.>) :: OsPath -> OsString -> OsPath

Add an extension, even if there is already one there, equivalent to addExtension.

"/directory/path" <.> "ext" == "/directory/path.ext"
"/directory/path" <.> ".ext" == "/directory/path.ext"

Take a string, split it on the searchPathSeparator character.

On Windows, blank items are ignored on Windows, and path elements are stripped of quotes.

On Posix, blank items are converted to . on Posix, and quotes are not treated specially.

Follows the recommendations in http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap08.html

Windows: splitSearchPath "File1;File2;File3"  == ["File1","File2","File3"]
Windows: splitSearchPath "File1;;File2;File3" == ["File1","File2","File3"]
Windows: splitSearchPath "File1;\"File2\";File3" == ["File1","File2","File3"]
Posix:   splitSearchPath "File1:File2:File3"  == ["File1","File2","File3"]
Posix:   splitSearchPath "File1::File2:File3" == ["File1",".","File2","File3"]
valueisRelative :: OsPath -> Bool

Is a path relative, or is it fixed to the root?

Windows: isRelative "path\\test" == True
Windows: isRelative "c:\\test" == False
Windows: isRelative "c:test" == True
Windows: isRelative "c:\\" == False
Windows: isRelative "c:/" == False
Windows: isRelative "c:" == True
Windows: isRelative "\\\\foo" == False
Windows: isRelative "\\\\?\\foo" == False
Windows: isRelative "\\\\?\\UNC\\foo" == False
Windows: isRelative "/foo" == True
Windows: isRelative "\\foo" == True
Posix:   isRelative "test/path" == True
Posix:   isRelative "/test" == False
Posix:   isRelative "/" == False

According to [1]:

  • "A UNC name of any format [is never relative]."

  • "You cannot use the "\?" prefix with a relative path."

Remove any trailing path separators

dropTrailingPathSeparator "file/test/" == "file/test"
          dropTrailingPathSeparator "/" == "/"
Windows:  dropTrailingPathSeparator "\\" == "\\"
Posix:    not (hasTrailingPathSeparator (dropTrailingPathSeparator x)) || isDrive x

Get the directory name, move up one level.

          takeDirectory "/directory/other.ext" == "/directory"
          takeDirectory x `isPrefixOf` x || takeDirectory x == "."
          takeDirectory "foo" == "."
          takeDirectory "/" == "/"
          takeDirectory "/foo" == "/"
          takeDirectory "/foo/bar/baz" == "/foo/bar"
          takeDirectory "/foo/bar/baz/" == "/foo/bar/baz"
          takeDirectory "foo/bar/baz" == "foo/bar"
Windows:  takeDirectory "foo\\bar" == "foo"
Windows:  takeDirectory "foo\\bar\\\\" == "foo\\bar"
Windows:  takeDirectory "C:\\" == "C:\\"