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Chapter 2 - File Manager / File Manager Reference

Low-Level HFS Routines

The File Manager provides a set of low-level file and directory manipulation routines that are available in all operating environments. You do not need to call the Gestalt function to determine if these routines are available.

These routines exchange parameters with your application through a parameter block. When you call a low-level routine, you pass the address of the appropriate parameter block to the routine.

Some low-level HFS routines can run either asynchronously or synchronously. Each of these routines comes in three versions: one version requires the async parameter, and two have the suffix Async or Sync added to their names. For more information about the differences between the three versions, see "Low-Level File Access Routines" on page 2-120. Only the first version of these routines is documented in this section. See "Summary of the File Manager," beginning on page 2-240, for a listing that includes all three versions.

Assembly-Language Note

See the assembly-language note on page 2-120 for details on calling these routines from assembly language.

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Subtopics

Opening Files

Creating and Deleting Files and Directories

Accessing Information About Files and Directories

Moving Files or Directories

Maintaining Working Directories

Searching a Catalog

Exchanging the Data in Two Files