Virtual File Systems

Virtual File Systems

Lucee supports the following virtual file systems:

  • ram
  • file
  • s3
  • http / https
  • zip
  • tar

Local File System

You may already be familiar with local file systems, the local file system is the default file system in Lucee. That means if there is no other definition, Lucee will always use the local file system.

A simple example

<cfscript>
	sct.file=getCurrenttemplatepath();
	sct.directory=getDirectoryFromPath(sct.file);
	dump(sct);

<span class="nf">dump</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">fileRead</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">sct.file</span><span class="p">));</span>
<span class="nf">dump</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">directoryList</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">sct.directory</span><span class="p">));</span>



</cfscript>

However, you can explicitly define the file system you want to use. To use a local file system, use the "//file" prefix.

As seen in the example code above, the local file system is the default, so it is not necessary to explicitly define it. The example below shows how you can explicitly define a local file system. The result is the same as the code above.

<cfscript>
sct.file=getCurrenttemplatepath();
sct.directory=getDirectoryFromPath(sct.file);
dump(sct);

sct.file="file://"&sct.file;
sct.directory="file://"&sct.directory;


dump(fileRead(sct.file));
dump(directoryList(sct.directory));
</cfscript>

ZIP File System

Another file system you can use in Lucee is the ZIP file system. To tell Lucee to use the ZIP file system, use the prefix "zip://" and end with ! Now the file path will look like zip://xxx/xxx/xxx/xxx/testbox-2.2.0.zip!

A detailed example is provided below:

<cfscript>
sct.file=getCurrenttemplatepath();
sct.directory=getDirectoryFromPath(sct.file);
dump(sct);

sct.zipFile=sct.directory&"testbox-2.2.0.zip";
sct.zip="Zip://"&sct.zipFile&"!"


dump(directoryList(sct.zip));
dump(directoryList(sct.zip&"/testbox"));
echo("<pre>");echo(fileRead(sct.zip&"/testbox/readme.md"));echo("</pre>")
</cfscript>

http/https File System

Lucee also support the HTTP file system. Simply use the HTTP URL like you would use a file system definition.

The below example shows how to read the file content from the Lucee docs:

<cfscript>
	uri="https://docs.lucee.org/reference/functions/abs.html";
	dump(fileRead(uri));
	dump(directoryList("https://lucee.org/index.cfm"));
</cfscript>

RAM File System

RAM is an in Memory Filesystem that stores Files in the Memory of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) simply by using "ram://", unless you define a Cache in the Lucee Administrator for this Resource.

The RAM file system has much faster access than a local file system.

Each Web Context has it's own independent RAM Cache, it cannot be shared between multiple contexts.

When the available memory is low, files maybe (somewhat randomly) garbage collected (CG-ed) by the JVM from the RAM file system, increasing the memory assigned to the JVM will help avoid this

<cfscript>
sct.ram = "ram://";
dump(sct);
dump(directoryCreate(sct.ram&"/heidi/"));
fileWrite(sct.ram&"susi.txt", "sorglos");
dump(directoryList(sct.ram));
</cfscript>

S3 File System

S3 is a remote file system you can use from Amazon S3 storage. You will need access credentials for accessing the S3 bucket.

Set up the S3 file system using the prefix "s3://"

In Lucee, we can define an S3 file system in two ways:

  • Define credentials in the Application.cfc file
  • Pass the credentials with the S3 URL
<cfscript>
//In Application.cfc
this.s3.accesskeyid= "xxxxxxx"
this.s3.awssecretkey= "xxxxxxx"

sct.s3 = s3://#request.s3.accesskeyid#:#request.s3.awssecretkey#; // simply as file path
sct.s3 = "s3:///"; //If you define in cfc use like this


dir = directoryList(sct.s3);
dump(dir);


dir = directoryList(sct.s3&"testcasesS3/");
dump(dir);


dir = directoryList(sct.s3&"testcasesS3/a");
dump(dir);


c = fileRead(sct.s3&"testcasesS3/a/foo.txt");
dump(c);
</cfscript>

FTP File System

Lucee allows you to treat a remote FTP server as a virtual filesystem.

You will need access credentials for accessing FTP. Set up an FTP file system using the prefix "ftp://"

<cfscript>
/* How to configure default FTP settings via Application.cfc */
this.ftp.username="...";
this.ftp.password="...";
this.ftp.host="ftp.lucee.org";
this.ftp.port=21;

/ index.cfm /
ftp = ftp://#request.ftp.user#:#request.ftp.pass#@ftp53.world4you.com:21/;
//ftp="ftp:///"; // take credentials and host/port from Application.cfc
//ftp="ftp://ftp53.world4you.com:21/"; // take credentials from Application.cfc
//ftp="ftp://#request.ftp.user#:#request.ftp.pass#@/"; // take host/port from Application.cfc


dir = directoryList(ftp);
dump(dir);


</cfscript>

Footnotes

Here you can see above details in video

Lucee virtual File System

See also