A.7 External Files and File Objects
Static Semantics
1
{external file}
{name (of an external
file)} {form
(of an external file)} Values input from
the external environment of the program, or output to the external environment,
are considered to occupy
external files. An external file can
be anything external to the program that can produce a value to be read
or receive a value to be written. An external file is identified by a
string (the
name). A second string (the
form) gives further
system-dependent characteristics that may be associated with the file,
such as the physical organization or access rights. The conventions governing
the interpretation of such strings shall be documented.
2
{file (as file object)}
Input and output operations are expressed as operations
on objects of some
file type, rather than directly in terms of
the external files. In the remainder of this section, the term
file
is always used to refer to a file object; the term
external file
is used otherwise.
3
Input-output for sequential files of values of a
single element type is defined by means of the generic package Sequential_IO.
In order to define sequential input-output for a given element type,
an instantiation of this generic unit, with the given type as actual
parameter, has to be declared. The resulting package contains the declaration
of a file type (called File_Type) for files of such elements, as well
as the operations applicable to these files, such as the Open, Read,
and Write procedures.
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Input-output for direct access files is likewise defined by a generic
package called Direct_IO. Input-output in human-readable form is defined
by the (nongeneric) packages Text_IO for Character and String data,
and
Wide_Text_IO for Wide_Character and Wide_String data
,
and Wide_Wide_Text_IO for Wide_Wide_Character and Wide_Wide_String data.
Input-output for files containing streams of elements representing values
of possibly different types is defined by means of the (nongeneric) package
Streams.Stream_IO.
5
Before input or output operations can be performed
on a file, the file first has to be associated with an external file.
While such an association is in effect, the file is said to be open,
and otherwise the file is said to be closed.
6
The language does not define what happens to external
files after the completion of the main program and all the library tasks
(in particular, if corresponding files have not been closed).
{access
types (input-output unspecified)} {input-output
(unspecified for access types)} {unspecified
[partial]} The effect of input-output for
access types is unspecified.
7
{current
mode (of an open file)} An open file has
a
current mode, which is a value of one of the following enumeration
types:
8
type File_Mode is (In_File, Inout_File, Out_File); -- for Direct_IO
9
These values correspond respectively to the
cases where only reading, both reading and writing, or only writing are
to be performed.
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type File_Mode
is (In_File, Out_File, Append_File);
--
for Sequential_IO, Text_IO, Wide_Text_IO, Wide_Wide_Text_IO, and Stream_IO11
These values correspond respectively to the
cases where only reading, only writing, or only appending are to be performed.
12
The mode of a
file can be changed.
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Several file management operations are common to Sequential_IO, Direct_IO,
Text_IO,
and Wide_Text_IO
,
and Wide_Wide_Text_IO. These operations are described in subclause
A.8.2 for sequential and direct files. Any
additional effects concerning text input-output are described in subclause
A.10.2.
14
The exceptions that can be propagated by the execution
of an input-output subprogram are defined in the package IO_Exceptions;
the situations in which they can be propagated are described following
the description of the subprogram (and in clause
A.13).
{Storage_Error (raised by failure of
run-time check)} {Program_Error
(raised by failure of run-time check)} The
exceptions Storage_Error and Program_Error may be propagated. (Program_Error
can only be propagated due to errors made by the caller of the subprogram.)
Finally, exceptions can be propagated in certain implementation-defined
situations.
14.a/2
This paragraph
was deleted.Implementation defined:
Any implementation-defined characteristics
of the input-output packages.
14.b/2
Discussion: The
last sentence here is referring to the documentation requirements in
A.13, “Exceptions
in Input-Output”, and the documentation summary item is provided
there.
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Each instantiation of the generic packages Sequential_IO and Direct_IO
declares a different type File_Type. In the case of Text_IO, Wide_Text_IO,
Wide_Wide_Text_IO, and Streams.Stream_IO,
the corresponding type File_Type is unique.
16
20 A bidirectional device can often be
modeled as two sequential files associated with the device, one of mode
In_File, and one of mode Out_File. An implementation may restrict the
number of files that may be associated with a given external file.
Wording Changes from Ada 95
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Included package Wide_Wide_Text_IO in this description.
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