---
name: "Dpkg::Path"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "libdpkg-perl"
version: "1.18.25"
release: "Debian 9 (Stretch)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Dpkg::Path"
---

# Dpkg::Path(3)

some common path handling functions

## NAME

Dpkg::Path - some common path handling functions

## DESCRIPTION

It provides some functions to handle various path.

## FUNCTIONS

- get\_pkg\_root\_dir($file)

  This function will scan upwards the hierarchy of directory to find out the directory which contains the "DEBIAN" sub-directory and it will return its path. This directory is the root directory of a package being built.

  If no DEBIAN subdirectory is found, it will return undef.

- relative\_to\_pkg\_root($file)

  Returns the filename relative to get\_pkg\_root\_dir($file).

- guess\_pkg\_root\_dir($file)

  This function tries to guess the root directory of the package build tree. It will first use *get\_pkg\_root\_dir()*, but it will fallback to a more imprecise check: namely it will use the parent directory that is a sub-directory of the debian directory.

  It can still return undef if a file outside of the debian sub-directory is provided.

- check\_files\_are\_the\_same($file1, $file2, $resolve\_symlink)

  This function verifies that both files are the same by checking that the device numbers and the inode numbers returned by *stat()*/*lstat()* are the same. If `$resolve_symlink` is true then *stat()* is used, otherwise *lstat()* is used.

- canonpath($file)

  This function returns a cleaned path. It simplifies double //, and remove /./ and /../ intelligently. For /../ it simplifies the path only if the previous element is not a symlink. Thus it should only be used on real filenames.

- $newpath = resolve\_symlink($symlink)

  Return the filename of the file pointed by the symlink. The new name is canonicalized by *canonpath()*.

- $cmdpath = find\_command($command)

  Return the path of the command if defined and available on an absolute or relative path or on the `$PATH`, undef otherwise.

- $control\_file = get\_control\_path($pkg, $filetype)

  Return the path of the control file of type `$filetype` for the given package.

- @control\_files = get\_control\_path($pkg)

  Return the path of all available control files for the given package.

- $file = find\_build\_file($basename)

  Selects the right variant of the given file: the arch-specific variant ("$basename.$arch") has priority over the OS-specific variant ("$basename.$os") which has priority over the default variant ("$basename"). If none of the files exists, then it returns undef.

- @files = find\_build\_file($basename)

  Return the available variants of the given file. Returns an empty list if none of the files exists.

## CHANGES

### Version 1.04 (dpkg 1.17.11)

Update semantics: *find\_command()* now handles an empty or undef argument.

### Version 1.03 (dpkg 1.16.1)

New function: *find\_build\_file()*

### Version 1.02 (dpkg 1.16.0)

New function: *get\_control\_path()*

### Version 1.01 (dpkg 1.15.8)

New function: *find\_command()*

### Version 1.00 (dpkg 1.15.6)

Mark the module as public.