Using file system entities and pathnames

You use instances of TPathName to either retrieve a file system entity based on a pathname or to get a pathname based on the file system entity. When an external program does not pass you the file system entity you need to use, you can use TPathName to get the entity.

You use instances of the concrete file system entities (TDirectory, TVolume, and TFile) to access file system properties, as well as to construct file streams, mapped files, and iterators. File system entities also contain member functions that perform tasks specific to the entity--for example, the TDirectory class includes a CreateFile function.