toFilePath abstract method

String toFilePath({
  1. bool? windows,
})

Creates a file path from a file URI.

The returned path has either Windows or non-Windows semantics.

For non-Windows semantics, the slash ("/") is used to separate path segments.

For Windows semantics, the backslash ("\") separator is used to separate path segments.

If the URI is absolute, the path starts with a path separator unless Windows semantics is used and the first path segment is a drive letter. When Windows semantics is used, a host component in the uri in interpreted as a file server and a UNC path is returned.

The default for whether to use Windows or non-Windows semantics is determined from the platform Dart is running on. When running in the standalone VM, this is detected by the VM based on the operating system. When running in a browser, non-Windows semantics is always used.

To override the automatic detection of which semantics to use pass a value for windows. Passing true will use Windows semantics and passing false will use non-Windows semantics.

If the URI ends with a slash (i.e. the last path component is empty), the returned file path will also end with a slash.

With Windows semantics, URIs starting with a drive letter cannot be relative to the current drive on the designated drive. That is, for the URI file:///c:abc calling toFilePath will throw as a path segment cannot contain colon on Windows.

Examples using non-Windows semantics (resulting of calling toFilePath in comment):

Uri.parse("xxx/yyy");  // xxx/yyy
Uri.parse("xxx/yyy/");  // xxx/yyy/
Uri.parse("file:///xxx/yyy");  // /xxx/yyy
Uri.parse("file:///xxx/yyy/");  // /xxx/yyy/
Uri.parse("file:///C:");  // /C:
Uri.parse("file:///C:a");  // /C:a

Examples using Windows semantics (resulting URI in comment):

Uri.parse("xxx/yyy");  // xxx\yyy
Uri.parse("xxx/yyy/");  // xxx\yyy\
Uri.parse("file:///xxx/yyy");  // \xxx\yyy
Uri.parse("file:///xxx/yyy/");  // \xxx\yyy\
Uri.parse("file:///C:/xxx/yyy");  // C:\xxx\yyy
Uri.parse("file:C:xxx/yyy");  // Throws as a path segment
                              // cannot contain colon on Windows.
Uri.parse("file://server/share/file");  // \\server\share\file

If the URI is not a file URI, calling this throws UnsupportedError.

If the URI cannot be converted to a file path, calling this throws UnsupportedError.

Implementation

// TODO(lrn): Deprecate and move functionality to File class or similar.
// The core libraries should not worry about the platform.
String toFilePath({bool? windows});