From: GOTO Kentaro <gotoken@...>
Date: 2002-08-10T00:22:22+09:00
Subject: Re: Getting the file name from a File::Stat object?

At Fri, 9 Aug 2002 23:24:41 +0900,
Lloyd Zusman wrote:
> For that purpose, I know I can always use a subclass, like this:
> 
>   class MyStat < File::Stat
>     attr_reader :item
>     def initialize(arg)
>       @item = arg
>       super(arg)
>     end
>   end
>   
>   stat = MyStat.new("file.name")
>   p stat.item
> 
>   output: "file.name"
> 
> But I was hoping I didn't need to rely on a subclass, so that I could
> also get the same behavior from File.stat, etc.  Like I said above ...
> oh well ...

You can redefine File.stat as follows, however, I don't recommend this
because File::stat is not API for a file but just for a inode.  For
example, File::stat can represent a file which has been deleted already.

  class File
    class << self
      alias_method(:__stat__, :stat)

      def stat(arg)
        Stat.new(arg)
      end
    end

    class Stat
      attr_reader :item
      def initialize(arg)
        @item = arg
      end
    end
  end

  fn = "file.name"
  File.open(fn,"a").close  # creat
  p File.stat(fn).item
  p File::Stat.new(fn).item

  f = open(fn)
  File::delete(fn)
  p File.exists?(fn)
  p f.stat
  p $stdout.stat

-- Gotoken