How do I create crossplatform file paths in Go?

Question

I want to open a given file "directory/subdirectory/file.txt" in golang. What is the recommended way to express such a path in an OS agnostic way (ie backslashes in Windows, forward slashes in Mac and Linux)? Something like Python's os.path module?

Answer 1

For creating and manipulating OS-specific paths directly use os.PathSeparator and the path/filepath package.

An alternative method is to always use '/' and the path package throughout your program. The path package uses '/' as path separator irrespective of the OS. Before opening or creating a file, convert the /-separated path into an OS-specific path string by calling filepath.FromSlash(path string). Paths returned by the OS can be converted to /-separated paths by calling filepath.ToSlash(path string).

Answer 2

Use path/filepath instead of path. path is intended for forward slash-separated paths only (such as those used in URLs), while path/filepath manipulates paths across different operating systems.

Example:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "path/filepath"
)

func main() {
    path := filepath.Join("home", "hello", "world.txt")
    fmt.Println(path)
}

Go Playground: https://go.dev/play/p/2Fpb_vJzvSb

Answer 3

Based on the answer of @EvanShaw and this blog the following code was created:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "path/filepath"
)

func main() {
    p := filepath.FromSlash("path/to/file")
    fmt.Println("Path: " + p)
}

returns:

Path: path\to\file

on Windows.

Answer 4

Go treats forward slashes (/) as the universal separator across all platforms [1]. "directory/subdirectory/file.txt" will be opened correctly regardless of the runtime operating system.