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<concept id="GUID-B69FE02E-3A78-5438-BA7C-F7BB4CD3EB76" xml:lang="en"><title>File

Server Client Side Overview</title><shortdesc> This topic describes the File Server Client Side overview.</shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<section id="GUID-149CB1F9-E225-4CF7-A442-0C1AFE4DFB83"><title>Purpose</title> <p>Provides an application interface to file

systems. </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-5607FE87-C867-4FFA-8998-A816AAC84323"><title>Architectural relationships</title> <p>File access is provided

by an Symbian platform server, the file server. It provides local

file systems (ROM, NAND/NOR flash and removable media), and an interface to

allow dynamically installable file systems, such as those required to communicate

with remote disks over a network. </p> <p>The drive, directory and file hierarchy

is VFAT, thus making the file system naturally compatible with desktop PCs. </p> <p>Stream

stores, as defined in the Stores API, provides a layer over the file interface,

and are commonly used instead of the file API directly. </p> <p>The application

architecture, as defined in the Application Architecture Framework API, and

associated components, provide the policy for file locations. Because of this,

most application programs do not need to know the details of the directory-related

APIs. </p> <p>Some additional utilities are provided in the Application Utilities

API. </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-0CBC1E5E-DDC9-42F8-8D21-56C3C0FC53D0"><title>Description</title> <p>The API has seven key concepts: file

server session, file, directory, drives and volumes, path and filename parser,

file management, file searching and directory scanning. </p> <p><b>File

server session</b> </p> <p>All access from client to server is through a file

server session. It provides file system manipulation functions, including

adding, removing, moving and renaming files and directories; inspecting and

changing file and directory attributes and entry details; and requesting notifications

of when significant change occurs. </p> <p>The file server session is provided

by <xref href="GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC.dita"><apiname>RFs</apiname></xref>. </p> <p><b>File</b> </p> <p>A specified file can be opened, created, or replaced. Files must be opened

before they are read from or written to. Data in read and write operations

is passed through descriptors. Files can also be read and written through

the file stream classes provided by the File Stores API. </p> <p>The file

interface is provided by <xref href="GUID-BE0804F6-4375-3C8A-8C83-968F510466E0.dita"><apiname>RFile</apiname></xref>. </p> <p><b>Directory</b> </p> <p>A directory entry is a directory, file or volume

label. Directory entries can be read and sorted. </p> <p>To read through a

directory one entry at a time, use <xref href="GUID-12AE154F-7741-38C0-ADFE-9784FCF5E516.dita"><apiname>RDir</apiname></xref>. To read many entries

at a time, use <xref href="GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC.dita"><apiname>RFs</apiname></xref> functions and the associated <xref href="GUID-15AEDE72-80FF-3689-A771-E00F1CF3EB88.dita"><apiname>CDir</apiname></xref>.

The directory entry class is <xref href="GUID-1F240E05-55D4-3161-B22E-B48D93A981DF.dita"><apiname>TEntry</apiname></xref>. </p> <p><b> Drives and volumes</b> </p> <p>A drive corresponds to a logical device.

A volume applies to removable media. As users insert and remove individual

devices, so different volumes are said to be mounted and demounted. For media

types that can be split into partitions, each partition corresponds to a separate

volume. </p> <p> <xref href="GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC.dita"><apiname>RFs</apiname></xref> provides means to find out which drives

and volumes are present. Information for them is encapsulated in <xref href="GUID-9BDD476C-04E1-3271-AFD9-8F86D818CE46.dita"><apiname>TDriveUnit</apiname></xref>, <xref href="GUID-4D883FA4-115C-3425-8A34-B00D1D4BBCF9.dita"><apiname>TDriveInfo</apiname></xref> and <xref href="GUID-F7AECD65-6C3C-3056-847A-FD49BB2E927F.dita"><apiname>TVolumeInfo</apiname></xref>. </p> <p><b>Path

and filename parser</b> </p> <p>A filename has the logical parts of drive,

path, name, and extension. An interface to manipulate filenames is provided

by <xref href="GUID-F673F02A-AC5B-3D0F-8D14-21E6221E5015.dita"><apiname>TParseBase</apiname></xref>. Concrete implementations are provided by

the derived classes, <xref href="GUID-E79A3B03-F8CB-37DB-A2A8-1C6C4E4D739A.dita"><apiname>TParse</apiname></xref>, <xref href="GUID-A6268E58-68EC-3041-93FD-5368CD230947.dita"><apiname>TParsePtr</apiname></xref> and <xref href="GUID-C65BCDAB-0476-3EAC-9BFC-37243AE43FE9.dita"><apiname>TParsePtrC</apiname></xref>. </p> <p><b>File management</b> </p> <p>Efficient large-scale copying, moving and

other file management operations, are provided by <xref href="GUID-82CEC14F-1479-3922-846A-9FCDB6465EF7.dita"><apiname>CFileMan</apiname></xref>. </p> <p><b>File searching</b> </p> <p>High-level file finding functionality is provided

by <xref href="GUID-98CC1E75-D2DE-3700-928C-7D530237ECBA.dita"><apiname>TFindFile</apiname></xref>. </p> <p><b>Directory

scanning</b> </p> <p> <xref href="GUID-C657AF2D-1183-3CD2-ACAF-3B0B00FC91BB.dita"><apiname>CDirScan</apiname></xref> can be used to scan through

a directory hierarchy, either up or down, returning a filtered list of the

entries contained in each directory. </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-34812989-AF66-4A81-A2AD-145FF01EDEFE"><title>See also</title> <p> <xref href="GUID-D80D6D46-27B7-500E-A83C-63EF038606BF.dita">Application

Utilities Overview</xref>  </p> <p> <xref href="GUID-21CF1D5F-44C5-5407-B3C9-8BC103C97079.dita">File

Stores Overview</xref>  </p> <p> <xref href="GUID-D0D27AEA-FDDB-5F6F-94F6-ADDF5910DC47.dita">Client/Server

Overview</xref>  </p> <p> <xref href="GUID-5EAED550-5FFC-54A6-BB4A-720975B127B8.dita">Stores

Overview</xref>  </p> </section>

</conbody></concept>