NAME

Dir::TempChdir - Temporarily change current working directory, return safely.

SYNOPSIS

  use Cwd 'getcwd';
  use Dir::TempChdir;

  chdir '/tmp';
  mkdir 'foo';
  mkdir 'foo/bar';
  print getcwd(), "\n"; # prints /tmp

  {
    my $tcd = Dir::TempChdir->new('foo'); # chdir to foo
    print "$tcd\n"; # prints /tmp/foo

    $tcd->pushd('bar'); # chdir to bar
    print "$tcd\n"; # prints /tmp/foo/bar

    rename '/tmp/foo', '/tmp/foo.old'; # Mallory tries to fool us

    $tcd->popd(); # chdir back to the directory formerly known as foo
    print "$tcd\n"; # prints /tmp/foo.old (Phew! We're still safe!)
  }

  # $tcd went out of scope: we're back in /tmp/.
  print getcwd(), "\n"; # prints /tmp

DESCRIPTION

Dir::TempChdir allows to change the current working directory temporarily, returning to the previous directory on demand or when the instance goes out of scope.

It uses a directory handle instead of a path to remember the previous directory, and it maintains a directory stack so that you can change directories back and forth as much as you like.

Using handles ensures you can return to the actual directory you came from (in terms of the inode) even if it was renamed, removed or replaced by a symlink in the meantime (both File::chdir and File::pushd are susceptible to such attacks). However, not all systems support this approach. See "USING THE MODULE UNSAFELY" if you're up for a thrill.

METHODS

new()

new($dir)

Creates a new Dir::TempChdir instance.

If called with a path or handle $dir, it calls pushd($dir) to change to the corresponding directory.

Returns undef on error.

The instance stringifies to the absolute path of the current working directory obtained by calling getcwd(). This might be undef if getcwd(2) encountered an error.

pushd($dir)

Changes to the directory given by the path or handle $dir and pushes a handle referring to the origin directory onto the directory stack (see also "NOTES").

Returns undef on error.

popd()

Removes the top entry from the directory stack, changes to the corresponding directory and closes it's handle.

Returns undef on error or when the directory stack is empty. You can distinguish these two situations by checking if $! is set.

backout()

Changes to the directory at the bottom end of the directory stack and clears the stack (thereby closing all open directory handles).

This is done automatically when the instance created by new() goes out of scope or is undef'd.

Returns undef on error or when the directory stack is empty. You can distinguish these two situations by checking if $! is set.

stack_size()

Returns the number of elements on the directory stack.

errno()

Returns the value of $! from the last pushd(), popd() or backout().

error()

Returns a descriptive text of the last error from pushd(), popd() or backout().

ERROR HANDLING

If pushd(), popd() or backout() fail they return undef. You can get the corresponding errno from $! as usual or from $tcd->errno(). If it is set, a more descriptive error message is available from $tcd->error().

If an error occurs when the instance goes out of scope or during initialization with new($dir) you can get the errno via Dir::TempChdir->errno() and the descriptive error message via Dir::TempChdir->error().

The descriptive error messages contain the original directory path (if available) which will be wrong if a directory was renamed, removed or replaced by a symlink during the lifetime of the TempChdir instance.

USING THE MODULE UNSAFELY

If your system lacks support for fchdir(2), use Dir::TempChdir; will die on purpose because the core feature of this module is the use of directory handles.

If you still want to use the module on such a system, you can do so at your own peril with use Dir::TempChdir '-IGNORE_UNSAFE_CHDIR_SECURITY_RISK';. This is in all caps and inconveniently long to make it unmistakably clear to everybody that you wish to invite a cornucopia of troubles.

In this case, popd() calls chdir() with the absolute path of the previous directory (which pushd() determined by calling getcwd()). Good luck.

NOTES

Don't use Dir::TempChdir with threads (processes are okay, though). You might want to take a look at openat() and friends from POSIX::2008 to avoid changing directories in the first place.

As a non-root user you might not be able to change back to a previous directory if its permissions have changed.

On systems that support fchdir() but neither the O_PATH nor the O_SEARCH open() flag you cannot change away from a directory to which you do not have read access. This is because in this case pushd() opens the current directory (i.e. ".") with O_RDONLY to obtain a handle and this requires read permission.

This module lives in the Dir namespace because it deals with directories and nothing but directories.

SEE ALSO

• File::chdir

• File::pushd

AUTHOR

Initially hacked together by Carsten Gaebler.

LICENSE

This library is free software. You can redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License, Version 2, as published by Sam Hocevar. See the COPYING file or http://www.wtfpl.net/ for more details.