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lispcommon-lisppathname

How to move a file in Lisp using rename-file

What's the best way to move a file in Lisp in an implementation-independent way? For example I have an image file:

(setq oldpath #P"SERVER:PICTURES;TEMP;PHOTO.PNG")

and I want to move it out of the TEMP directory into the PICTURES directory. This seems to work:

(setq newpath
  (make-pathname 
    :host (pathname-host oldpath) 
    :directory (butlast (pathname-directory oldpath)) 
    :name (pathname-name oldpath)
    :type (pathname-type oldpath)))

(rename-file oldpath newpath)

but is there a more elegant way?

Thanks, David

Solution

  • I'm usually using:

    (make-pathname :defaults old-path
               :directory (butlast (pathname-directory oldpath)))

    The :defaults argument makes sure that all relevant parts of the old pathname are being copied over.