Filesystem Release History

1.72.0

• Extracted filesystem_error to exception.hpp; file_status and associated enums and functions to file_status.hpp; directory_entry, directory_iterator and recursive_directory_iterator to directory.hpp.
• Deprecated: For backward compatibility operations.hpp still includes the new headers exception.hpp, file_status.hpp and directory.hpp, unless BOOST_FILESYSTEM_NO_DEPRECATED macro is defined. These implicit includes are considered deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Users are encouraged to include the new headers directly or include filesystem.hpp.
• The filesystem_error exception is now implemented in the compiled library of Boost.Filesystem. Users may need to add linking with Boost.Filesystem library in their projects.
• On POSIX.1-2008 platforms, use utimensat instead of utime. utime is declared obsolete in POSIX.1-2008 and can be disabled e.g. in uClibc-ng. (PR#115)
• directory_iterator is now left in the end state on memory allocation errors.
• In directory_iterator on POSIX systems, support for readdir/readdir_r has been reworked to avoid memory allocations for dirent structures when readdir is used. This reduces memory consumption and eliminates the possibility of buffer overruns in case if readdir produces a very long directory name.
• On Windows, use Boost.WinAPI to select the target Windows version.
• New: Added directory_options enum, which reflects the same named enum from C++20. The enum is supported in directory_iterator and recursive_directory_iterator to customize iteration behavior. In particular, the iterators now support skipping directories that can't be opened due to insufficient permissions. The symlink_option enum is now deprecated and should be replaced with directory_options.
• By default, recursive_directory_iterator is now reset to the end state in case of errors, as required by C++20. (#112)
• New: Added directory_options::pop_on_error option, which configures recursive_directory_iterator so that it attempts to recover from iteration errors by repeatedly invoking pop() until it succeeds or the end state is reached. (#113)
• New: Added directory_options::skip_dangling_symlinks option, which configures recursive_directory_iterator so that it doesn't follow dangling directory symlinks and continues iteration instead of reporting an error.
• Deprecated: The following members of recursive_directory_iterator are now marked as deprecated: level(), no_push_pending(), no_push_request(), no_push(). Users are advised to replace their use with the standard counterparts: depth(), recursion_pending(), disable_recursion_pending(). Note that recursion_pending() has the opposite meaning compared to no_push_pending() and no_push_request(). Deprecated methods will be removed in a future release.
• Fixed path::lexically_relative (and any dependent algorithms) to correctly handle empty, dot and dot-dot path elements in its argument. The behavior is made closer to C++17 std::path::lexically_relative in that empty and dot path elements are ignored and dot-dot path elements are accounted by decreasing the number of dot-dot path elements to generate in the resulting relative path. (#76)

1.71.0

• New: Added minimal support for CMake. (PR#106)
• Fixed incorrect error_code returned from directory iterator increment when readdir_r is used.
• For path, fixed rvalue-aware operator/ return type to return an rvalue instead of rvalue reference. This fixes leaving a dangling reference in the user's code if the result of operator/ is bound to a const reference. (#110)
• Fixes for better compatibility with Windows CE. (PR#24)

1.70.0

• New: Added support for movability to directory iterators.
• New: Added file status query overloads for directory_entry. This avoids a relatively expensive OS query when file status is requested for a result of dereferencing a directory iterator. (PR#55)
• Fixed a few instances of dereferencing std::string::end() in path implementation.
• Fixed program termination in case of out of memory condition in directory iterators constructors and operations accepting a reference to error_code. (#58)
• Fixed possible linking errors caused by missing definitions of static members of path. (#12759)
• Fixed possible use of uninitialized data in directory iterator increment operation on Linux. (#97)
• Reworked current_path and read_symlink implementation to avoid possible memory exhaustion on broken or tampered with filesystems. The functions now have an internal limit of the path size they will accept from the OS, which is currently 16 MiB.
• Increased the size of the internal buffer used by copy_file.

1.69.0

• Don't use readdir_r on Linux and Android since the readdir function is already thread-safe. (PR#68, #72)
• Fixed crashes in boost::filesystem::copy due to undefined behavior in the implementation. (PR#71)
• Fixed undefined behavior in boost::filesystem::directory_iterator implementation. (PR#77)
• Fixed compilation errors when using directory iterators with BOOST_FOREACH.
• Removed workarounds for older PGI C++ compiler versions to fix compilation on the newer ones. (PR#49)
• Fixed MSVC warnings about narrowing conversions. (PR#44)

1.67.0

• Fix static initialization issue that caused a crash if path operations were used before main(). (PR#62, PR#43, PR#50, PR#59)

1.66.0

• Clean up some tutorial example code and fix the wording for it in the tutorial. Thanks to Anmol-Singh-Jaggi for pull request #11.

1.64.0

• is_empty()overload with error_code parameter should not throw on error. Thanks to ldqrk for pull request #42
• Fix #10731 and #9480, Evaluate path.extension only once. Thanks to Daniel Krügler for pull request #41.
• Fix error propagation in space(p, ec). Thanks to cmuellner for pull request #39.
• Add test/config_info.cpp to increase macro state reporting in hopes of easing debugging on remote machines.
• Fix operations_test failure on MinGW: MinGW defines __MINGW32__ rather than _MSC_VER, so also test for __MINGW32__ to see if setenv/unsetenv workaround needed.

1.63.0

• Deprecated generic() function name: The undocumented experimental class path member function generic() has been renamed generic_path(). Fixes #11855, generic gives problems in C++/CLI. Unless the macro BOOST_FILESYSTEM_NO_DEPRECATED is defined, the original generic() will continue to be supplied as a workaround for existing user code. But generic()is deprecated. User code should migrate to the new name.

• New: Class path adds constexpr constants separator and dot of the type appropriate for the platform, and adds query functions filename_is_dot and filename_is_dot_dot. These add convenience and the implementations may be more efficient that user coded equivalent functions.
• Fix #12578, Make directory iterators able to detect when a copy has advanced to the end. This bug in directory_iterator and recursive_directory_iterator equality testing has existed more than a dozen years. Nowadays test driven development would likely have detected the problem in early development. Sigh.
• Fix #12495, create_directories() crashes when passed empty string as path, from Samantha Ritter. Also affected create_directory(). Charles Olivi submitted a pull request with some particularly helpful test cases.
• Fix #7307, remove_all(dirname,ec) throws on write protected directories. This is a tough one to test. There are three internal function calls where errors might arise, and it would take too much time to write tests for each of those cases. Someday we will have Titus Winter's mock installable file system, but for now are relying on code inspection rather than testing.
• Fix a cygwin warning and a cygwin error. Thanks to thtrummer for pull request #30.
• Fixed two broken links in reference docs. Thanks to tbeu for pull request #34.
• Fix reference doc signatures for path stem(), extension() member functions. Thanks to faithandbrave for pull request #31
• Fix broken link to #7506 in 1.60.0 Release History (Daniel Krügler).
• Refactor push_directory()internal logic so it is easier to reason about.

1.60.0

• New: Added functions lexically_normal, lexically_relative, relative, and weakly_canonical. Many thanks to Jamie Allsop for his help and perseverance. Resolves tickets #1976, #5897, #6249

• New: Class path now has reverse_iterator, const_reverse_iterator, rbegin(), and rend().
• New: C++11 noexcept supplied as specified in the Filesystem TS if supported by the compiler.
• New: C++11 move constructors and move assignments supplied as specified in the Filesystem TS if supported by the compiler. Resolves #10291.
• New: Existing functions whose names changed in the Filesystem TS are now supported under both the old and new names.
• New: Added size() function to class path. Resolves #6874, Path should have a size() member function.
• Clear several spurious GCC warnings.
• Fix #11733, Missing unistd.h include in boost/libs/filesystem/src/unique_path.cpp by apply a patch from Idar Tollefsen.
• Fix a race condition in unique_path by applying pull request #15 from Sebastian Redl. Also fixes #7506, unique_path Fails on Windows for Temporary User Profiles.
• Fix bug in file_status and recursive_directory_iterator: C++ turns an explicit constructor with all arguments except first defaulted into non-explicit single argument constructor.
• Fix #10591, boost::filesystem does not build on iOS 8, by applying a patch submitted by Daniel Seither.
• Fix #9454, Boost Filesystem [library build] not compiling when BOOST_FILESYSTEM_NO_DEPRECATED is defined, by applying a patch submitted by Makesim.
• Fix #11447, __OpenBSD__ macro name misspelled, by applying a patch submitted by Jasper Lievisse Adriaanse.

• Fix #11288, A patch to avoid redundant string allocations, by applying a patch submitted by Yevhen Ivannikov.

• Fix #11175, out-of-date documentation causing users to incorrectly expect that the library could be used with exceptions disabled.
• Resolve #11166 by mitigating (i.e. reducing the likelihood of) a possible external file system race in remove().

• Fix #7258, create_directories returns false if the path ends with a slash. Also fix related issues if path contains dot or dot-dot elements, and added test cases to the test suite.

• Reference docs editorial cleanups: Use same style sheet as the rest of the documentation. Tweak tab font size. Fix excessively long lines in tables, synopsis.

• Resolve #10766, parent_path() with redundant separator returns wrong value, by adding examples and notes to the reference documentation to show why the returned value is in fact correct, and to provide rationale for that behavior. See [path.itr], and [path.decompose] parent_path() and filename() sections of the reference docs.
• Minor other fixes, including pull requests from Jonathan Wakely and Marcel Raad.
• Closed several tickets as duplicates or otherwise resolved by the above changes:
  • #7607, path should not infer an invisible "." at the end of a path that ends with a slash; #7258, #10766
  • #11061, #11062, impossible to traverse the path of the reverse iterator, is effectively resolved by the addition of the class path reverse iteration feature. The reference documentation has also been updated with a note warning about the limitations of class path iterators.

1.59.0

• Update the Tutorial:
  • Use C++11 in the example programs to improve clarity.
  • Update the example source code show to match the actual example source code in the cpp files.
  • Rerun all the examples and update the output shown in the tutorial accordingly.
  • Fix spacing and other HTML presentation issues.
• Fix #11491, temp_directory_path() doesn't return valid temp path on Android.

1.58.0

• Fix #6124, #6779, and #10038. Cannot pass a BOOST_SCOPED_ENUM to a compiled function because it will result in an undefined reference if the library is compiled with -std=c++0x but the use is compiled in C++03 mode, or visa versa.
• Rewrite Windows implementation of temp_directory_path() to (1) avoid GetTempPath() failure if path length > 130 (ticket #5300) and (2) provide a more sensible sequence of directories than provided by GetTempPath(), per boost list discussion "[filesystem] temp_directory_path() behavior on Windows". The new sequence is:
  1. %TMP%
  2. %TEMP%
  3. %LOCALAPPDATA%/Temp
  4. %USERPROFILE%/Temp
  5. GetWindowsDirectoryW()/Temp

1.57.0

• Rework class path locale and codecvt implementation for increased reliability. This change was SVN revision 83021, which should have gone into 1.56.0 but unfortunately the merge didn't happen until too late.
• Fix tickets #8930, #9054, #9219, #10228, and #10641, all related to locales and codecvt facets.
• The net effect of the above changes and fixes should be to eliminate spurious "locale::facet::_S_create_c_locale name not valid" errors on Linux and other non-BSD POSIX-like systems. The error will continue to occur, as it should, when a path encoding conversion char-to-wchar_t or wchar_t-to-char is attempted in an environment without a valid C locale (for example, if the LANG environment variable is invalid or not defined).
• Fix #6124, #6779, and #10038 - an undefined reference that occurred when the library was compiled for C++03 but the using program was compiled for C++11, or vice versa. The private library interface has been changed to use a plain-old C++03 enum. This is the fix suggested by Andy in 6779.
• The Windows implementation now treats NTFS directory junctions (also known as junctions, also known as mount points) as symlinks. This has the effect of treating directory junctions as directories, and thus supporting all operations suitable for directories. This resolves #9016. Directory junctions are very similar to symlinks, but may have performance or other advantages in some situations. They can be created from the command line with "mklink /j link target". There is no plan for Boost.Filesystem to be able to create them directly other than by calling std::system().

1.56.0

• Reorganize recursive_directory_iterator::increment, adding an invariant that progress is always made, even if an error is reported by exception or error_code. Add a manually executed test, test/issues/recurse_dir_iter_5403.cpp. Adjust regular regression tests as needed. Thanks to Claudio Bley for the pull request - the change was incorporated into the reorganized code. Fixes #5403 and #6821.
• Fix canonical() to treat parent of root as root. (Christian Hammerl) Fixes #9683 and #10187.
• Added missing test for __sun macro which is defined on Solaris 10. (Chris Stylianou)
• Minor fixes and code cleanup.
• Update IDE projects to Visual Studio 2013.
• Remove unused const char colon to clear clang warning. (J?gen Hunold)
• Add BOOST_NOEXCEPT to class filesystem_error.
• Change perms::all_all and perms::perms_mask to absolute values to quiet intellisense warnings, and conform to C++11.

1.54.0

• Reimplement path::codecvt() and path::imbue() with portable code that is intended to be much more robust and maintainable. A section on path usage concerns has been added to the reference documentation describing several concerns that arise in the context of multithreading and path::codecvt().

1.52.0

• Fix #7239, Stack overflow when calling create_directories(":D"). The reported problem was a symptom of an internal bug that caused path::filename() and path::parent_path() to fail on Windows for path(":"), and that in turn caused other functions that depend on filename() or parent_path() to fail, such as create_directories().

1.51.0

• Add begin() and end() non-member functions for directory_iterator and recursive_directory_iterator so that C++11 range-based for statements work. Suggested by feature requests #5896 and #6521, using the #5896 approach.
• Add range_begin() and range_end() non-member functions for directory_iterator and recursive_directory_iterator so that BOOST_FOREACH works.
• Fix a Linux fchmodat problem affecting symlink permissions reported during discussion of #6659.
• Fix #6659 and #7051, fchmodat supported only on Solaris 11. Fix for both Sun and GCC compilers.

1.50.0

• Remove Filesystem Version 2 from the distribution. Version 3 is now the only distributed version. Those still using V2 are urged to migrate to V3 as soon as possible.
• Add constexpr value_type preferred_separator to class path.
• Fix #5118, replace_extension doesn't work as specified in documentation. The documentation, implementation, and test cases have all had fixes applied. The documentation had failed to mention that any existing extension is removed. The behavior for simple cases has been reverted to the Version 2 behavior, but with corrections so that complex replacements now work. Two test cases from #5118 have been added.
• Fix #3737, Boost.Filesystem does not compile on Windows Mobile. On Windows, <sys/stat.h> is no longer included.
• Fix #4065, Boost Filesystem lexicographic path comparison inconsistent. This required multiple source code bug fixes and code cleanup, correcting problems not related to lexicographical issues.
• Add class path member function compare for consistency with std::string.
• Tighten BOOST_FILESYSTEM_DYN_LINK and BOOST_FILESYSTEM_STATIC_LINK logic in filesystem/config.hpp so that one or the other is always defined, and both being defined is a #error.
• Fix #6690 and #6737, resolving static linking related problems with VC++ 8 through 11. Note that this fix may reintroduce codecvt thread safety problems #4889, #6320, for these compilers if static linking is used.
• Add path::operator+= and concat functions to tack on things like suffixes or numbers. Suggested by Ed Smith-Rowland and others.
• Fix #6809, Implementation of filesystem::rename() method for MS Windows is wrong, by adding MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED to deal with renames across drives, volumes, file systems. Fix has no effect on non-Windows systems.
• Fix #6819, A path operand with a source that was a one character array was treated as empty, even if it wasn't empty. Such arrays can occur in unions or in code using C variable length array idioms.
• Fix #6932, create_directories throws exception even if error_code is specified.

1.49.0

• Fix #3714, Added test cases and fixes for class path errors when assignment or append used self or portion of self as source.
• Fix #4889, #6320, Locale codecvt_facet not thread safe on Windows. Move Windows, Mac OS X, locale and codecvt facet back to namespace scope. POSIX except OS X uses local static initialization (IE lazy) to ensure exceptions are catchable if environmental variables are misconfigured and to avoid use of locale("") if not actually used.
• Fix #5652, recursive_directory_iterator fails on cyclic symbolic links. Thanks to Daniel Aarno for the patch.
• Fix #5653, recursive_directory_iterator(error_code) can still throw filesystem_error.
• Fix #5900, directory_iterator access violation on Windows if error is thrown. Thanks to Andreas Eckleder for the patch.
• Fix #5900 comment 2, a bug in director_iterator construction with error_code argument that caused increment to be called without the ec argument being passed.
• Fix #5989 by cleaning up test suite path_test.cpp code even though the ticket itself was not a defect, and clarifying docs; iteration over a path yields generic format.
• Fix #5592, Change Windows codecvt processing from CP_THREAD_ACP to CP_ACP.
• Operations function fixes for PGI compiler, thanks to Noel Belcourt.
• Relax permissions test to reflect reality, particularly on the Sandia test platforms.

1.48.0

• Added operational function canonical(), suggested by David Svoboda, who also provided pseudo-code.
• Added hash_value() function for paths. (Daniel James)
• Fix path inserter problem (#5764) reported for QNX6.3.2 host (gcc-3.3.5)
• Fix problem of locale("") exception being thrown before main() starts on poorly configured (e.g. LANG="bad name") POSIX systems. Resolves the most serious aspect of tickets #4688, #5100, #5289.

1.47.0

• Program file_status.cpp added (V3). See boost-root/libs/filesystem/v3/example. Useful both as an example and to explore how Boost.Filesystem treats various status errors.  Run "bjam" (NOT "bjam install") in the example directory to install in example/bin.

1.46.1

• Fix fstream problem for STLPort masquerading as Dinkumware (#5217).

1.46.0

• Version 3 of the library is now the default.
• IBM vacpp: Workaround for compiler bug affecting iterator_facade. (#4912)
• Verify, clarify, document that <boost/config/user.hpp> can be used to specify BOOST_FILESYSTEM_VERSION. (#4891)
• Replaced C-style assert with BOOST_ASSERT.
• Undeprecated unique_path(). Instead, add a note mentioning the workaround for lack of thread safety and possible change to cwd. unique_path() is just too convenient to deprecate!
• Cleared several GCC warnings.
• Changed V2 code to use BOOST_THROW_EXCEPTION.
• Windows: Fix status() to report non-symlink reparse point correctly.
• Add symlink_option to recursive_directory_iterator, allowing control over recursion into directory symlinks. Note that the default is changed to not recurse into directory symlinks.
• Reference documentation cleanup, including fixing missing and broken links, and adding missing functions.
• Miscellaneous implementation code cleanup.

Revised 07 August, 2017

© Copyright Beman Dawes, 2011

Use, modification, and distribution are subject to the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. See www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt