« XPCOM API Reference

Summary

The XPCOM Directory Service. This service returns the locations of "well known" directories in an OS-independent manner. For instance, it can give you the path of the system's temporary directory, desktop directory, current working directory, and so on.

Class ID

f00152d0-b40b-11d3-8c9c-000064657374

ContractID

@mozilla.org/file/directory_service;1

Supported Interfaces

• nsIProperties
• nsIDirectoryService

   

  Remarks

  This component is a singleton and should therefore be accessed via the XPCOM Service Manager.

  Example Code

  #include "nsXPCOM.h"
  #include "nsCOMPtr.h"
  #include "nsDirectoryServiceDefs.h"
  #include "nsIServiceManager.h"
  #include "nsIProperties.h"
  
  /**
   * Get the location of the system's "temp" directory.
   */
  nsresult GetTempDir(nsIFile **aResult)
  {
    nsresult rv;
  
    nsCOMPtr<nsIServiceManager> svcMgr;
    rv = NS_GetServiceManager(getter_AddRefs(svcMgr));
    if (NS_FAILED(rv))
      return rv;
  
    nsCOMPtr<nsIProperties> directory;
    rv = svcMgr->GetServiceByContractID("@mozilla.org/file/directory_service;1",
                                        NS_GET_IID(nsIProperties),
                                        getter_AddRefs(directory));
    if (NS_FAILED(rv))
      return rv;
  
    rv = directory->Get(NS_OS_TEMP_DIR, NS_GET_IID(nsIFile), aResult);
  
    return rv;
  }
  

  Note that NS_OS_TEMP_DIR is defined in nsDirectoryServiceDefs.h along with a number of other Directory Service keys.

  See Also

  • Using nsIDirectoryService
  • nsIProperties.get()
  • nsIDirectoryServiceProvider