OperatingSystem

Library version: 3.1.2

Library scope: global
Named arguments: supported

Introduction
A test library providing keywords for OS related tasks.
OperatingSystem is Robot Framework's standard library that enables various operating system related tasks to be performed in the system
where Robot Framework is running. It can, among other things, execute commands (e.g. Run), create and remove files and directories (e.g. Create
File, Remove Directory), check whether files or directories exists or contain something (e.g. File Should Exist, Directory Should Be Empty) and
manipulate environment variables (e.g. Set Environment Variable).

Table of contents
Path separators
Pattern matching
Tilde expansion
Boolean arguments
Example
Shortcuts
Keywords

Path separators
Because Robot Framework uses the backslash ( \ ) as an escape character in the test data, using a literal backslash requires duplicating it like in
c:\\path\\file.txt . That can be inconvenient especially with longer Windows paths, and thus all keywords expecting paths as arguments
convert forward slashes to backslashes automatically on Windows. This also means that paths like ${CURDIR}/path/file.txt are operating
system independent.
Notice that the automatic path separator conversion does not work if the path is only a part of an argument like with Run and Start Process
keywords. In these cases the built-in variable ${/} that contains \ or / , depending on the operating system, can be used instead.

Pattern matching
Some keywords allow their arguments to be specified as glob patterns where:
* matches any string, even an empty string
? matches any single character
[chars] matches one character in the bracket
[!chars] matches one character not in the bracket
[a-z] matches one character from the range in the bracket
[!a-z] matches one character not from the range in the bracket

Unless otherwise noted, matching is case-insensitive on case-insensitive operating systems such as Windows.
Starting from Robot Framework 2.9.1, globbing is not done if the given path matches an existing file even if it would contain a glob pattern.

Tilde expansion
Paths beginning with ~ or ~username are expanded to the current or specified user's home directory, respectively. The resulting path is
operating system dependent, but typically e.g. ~/robot is expanded to C:\Users\<user>\robot on Windows and
/home/<user>/robot on Unixes.
The ~username form does not work on Jython.

Boolean arguments
Some keywords accept arguments that are handled as Boolean values true or false. If such an argument is given as a string, it is considered false if
it is an empty string or equal to FALSE , NONE , NO , OFF or 0 , case-insensitively. Other strings are considered true regardless their value, and
other argument types are tested using the same rules as in Python.
True examples:
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=True # Strings are generally true.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=yes # Same as the above.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=${TRUE} # Python True is true.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=${42} # Numbers other than 0 are true.
False examples:
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=False # String false is false.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=no # Also string no is false.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=${EMPTY} # Empty string is false.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=${FALSE} # Python False is false.

Considering string NONE false is new in Robot Framework 3.0.3 and considering also OFF and 0 false is new in Robot Framework 3.1.

Example
Setting Value
Library OperatingSystem

Variable Value
${PATH} ${CURDIR}/example.txt

Test Case Action Argument Argument

Example Create File ${PATH} Some text
File Should Exist ${PATH}
Copy File ${PATH} ~/file.txt
${output} = Run ${TEMPDIR}${/}script.py arg

Shortcuts
Append To Environment Variable · Append To File · Copy Directory · Copy File · Copy Files · Count Directories In Directory · Count Files In Directory ·
Count Items In Directory · Create Binary File · Create Directory · Create File · Directory Should Be Empty · Directory Should Exist ·
Directory Should Not Be Empty · Directory Should Not Exist · Empty Directory · Environment Variable Should Be Set · Environment Variable Should Not Be Set ·
File Should Be Empty · File Should Exist · File Should Not Be Empty · File Should Not Exist · Get Binary File · Get Environment Variable ·
Get Environment Variables · Get File · Get File Size · Get Modified Time · Grep File · Join Path · Join Paths · List Directories In Directory · List Directory ·
List Files In Directory · Log Environment Variables · Log File · Move Directory · Move File · Move Files · Normalize Path · Remove Directory ·
Remove Environment Variable · Remove File · Remove Files · Run · Run And Return Rc · Run And Return Rc And Output · Set Environment Variable ·
Set Modified Time · Should Exist · Should Not Exist · Split Extension · Split Path · Touch · Wait Until Created · Wait Until Removed

Keywords
Keyword Arguments Documentation
Append To name, *values, **config Appends given values to environment variable name .
Environment
Variable If the environment variable already exists, values are added after it, and otherwise a new
environment variable is created.
Values are, by default, joined together using the operating system path separator ( ; on
Windows, : elsewhere). This can be changed by giving a separator after the values like
separator=value . No other configuration parameters are accepted.
Examples (assuming NAME and NAME2 do not exist initially):
Append To Environment Variable NAME first
Should Be Equal %{NAME} first
Append To Environment Variable NAME second third
Should Be Equal %{NAME} first${:}second${:}third
Append To Environment Variable NAME2 first separator=-
Should Be Equal %{NAME2} first
Append To Environment Variable NAME2 second separator=-
Should Be Equal %{NAME2} first-second

Append To File path, content, Appends the given content to the specified file.
encoding=UTF-8
If the file exists, the given text is written to its end. If the file does not exist, it is created.
Other than not overwriting possible existing files, this keyword works exactly like Create File. See
its documentation for more details about the usage.
Note that special encodings SYSTEM and CONSOLE only work with this keyword starting from
Robot Framework 3.1.2.

Copy Directory source, destination Copies the source directory into the destination.
If the destination exists, the source is copied under it. Otherwise the destination directory and the
possible missing intermediate directories are created.
Copy File source, destination Copies the source file into the destination.
Source must be a path to an existing file or a glob pattern (see Pattern matching) that matches
exactly one file. How the destination is interpreted is explained below.
1) If the destination is an existing file, the source file is copied over it.
2) If the destination is an existing directory, the source file is copied into it. A possible file with the
same name as the source is overwritten.
3) If the destination does not exist and it ends with a path separator ( / or \ ), it is considered a
directory. That directory is created and a source file copied into it. Possible missing intermediate
directories are also created.
4) If the destination does not exist and it does not end with a path separator, it is considered a
file. If the path to the file does not exist, it is created.
The resulting destination path is returned since Robot Framework 2.9.2.
See also Copy Files, Move File, and Move Files.
Copy Files *sources_and_destination Copies specified files to the target directory.
Source files can be given as exact paths and as glob patterns (see Pattern matching). At least
one source must be given, but it is not an error if it is a pattern that does not match anything.
Last argument must be the destination directory. If the destination does not exist, it will be
created.
Examples:
Copy Files ${dir}/file1.txt ${dir}/file2.txt ${dir2}
Copy Files ${dir}/file-*.txt ${dir2}

See also Copy File, Move File, and Move Files.

Count Directories path, pattern=None Wrapper for Count Items In Directory returning only directory count.
In Directory
Count Files In path, pattern=None Wrapper for Count Items In Directory returning only file count.
Directory
Count Items In path, pattern=None Returns and logs the number of all items in the given directory.
Directory
The argument pattern has the same semantics as with List Directory keyword. The count is
returned as an integer, so it must be checked e.g. with the built-in keyword Should Be Equal As
Integers.
Create Binary File path, content Creates a binary file with the given content.
If content is given as a Unicode string, it is first converted to bytes character by character. All
characters with ordinal below 256 can be used and are converted to bytes with same values.
Using characters with higher ordinal is an error.
Byte strings, and possible other types, are written to the file as is.
If the directory for the file does not exist, it is created, along with missing intermediate directories.
Examples:
Create Binary File ${dir}/example.png ${image content}
Create Binary File ${path} \x01\x00\xe4\x00

Use Create File if you want to create a text file using a certain encoding. File Should Not Exist
can be used to avoid overwriting existing files.
Create Directory path Creates the specified directory.
Also possible intermediate directories are created. Passes if the directory already exists, but fails
if the path exists and is not a directory.
Create File path, content=, Creates a file with the given content and encoding.
encoding=UTF-8
If the directory where the file is created does not exist, it is automatically created along with
possible missing intermediate directories. Possible existing file is overwritten.
On Windows newline characters ( \n ) in content are automatically converted to Windows native
newline sequence ( \r\n ).
See Get File for more information about possible encoding values, including special values
SYSTEM and CONSOLE .
Examples:
 Create File ${dir}/example.txt Hello, world!
Create File ${path} Hyv\xe4 esimerkki Latin-1
Create File /tmp/foo.txt 3\nlines\nhere\n SYSTEM

Use Append To File if you want to append to an existing file and Create Binary File if you need to
write bytes without encoding. File Should Not Exist can be used to avoid overwriting existing files.
The support for SYSTEM and CONSOLE encodings is new in Robot Framework 3.0.
Automatically converting \n to \r\n on Windows is new in Robot Framework 3.1.
Directory Should path, msg=None Fails unless the specified directory is empty.
Be Empty
The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
Directory Should path, msg=None Fails unless the given path points to an existing directory.
Exist
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
Directory Should path, msg=None Fails if the specified directory is empty.
Not Be Empty
The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
Directory Should path, msg=None Fails if the given path points to an existing file.
Not Exist
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
Empty Directory path Deletes all the content from the given directory.
Deletes both files and sub-directories, but the specified directory itself if not removed. Use
Remove Directory if you want to remove the whole directory.
Environment name, msg=None Fails if the specified environment variable is not set.
Variable Should Be
Set The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.

Environment name, msg=None Fails if the specified environment variable is set.

Variable Should
Not Be Set The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.

File Should Be path, msg=None Fails unless the specified file is empty.
Empty
The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
File Should Exist path, msg=None Fails unless the given path points to an existing file.
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
File Should Not Be path, msg=None Fails if the specified directory is empty.
Empty
The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
File Should Not path, msg=None Fails if the given path points to an existing file.
Exist
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
Get Binary File path Returns the contents of a specified file.
This keyword reads the specified file and returns the contents as is. See also Get File.
Get Environment name, default=None Returns the value of an environment variable with the given name.
Variable
If no such environment variable is set, returns the default value, if given. Otherwise fails the test
case.
Returned variables are automatically decoded to Unicode using the system encoding.
Note that you can also access environment variables directly using the variable syntax %
{ENV_VAR_NAME} .
Get Environment Returns currently available environment variables as a dictionary.
Variables
Both keys and values are decoded to Unicode using the system encoding. Altering the returned
dictionary has no effect on the actual environment variables.
Get File path, encoding=UTF-8, Returns the contents of a specified file.
encoding_errors=strict
This keyword reads the specified file and returns the contents. Line breaks in content are
converted to platform independent form. See also Get Binary File.
 encoding defines the encoding of the file. The default value is UTF-8 , which means that
UTF-8 and ASCII encoded files are read correctly. In addition to the encodings supported by the
underlying Python implementation, the following special encoding values can be used:
SYSTEM : Use the default system encoding.
CONSOLE : Use the console encoding. Outside Windows this is same as the system
encoding.
encoding_errors argument controls what to do if decoding some bytes fails. All values
accepted by decode method in Python are valid, but in practice the following values are most
useful:
strict : Fail if characters cannot be decoded (default).
ignore : Ignore characters that cannot be decoded.
replace : Replace characters that cannot be decoded with a replacement character.
Support for SYSTEM and CONSOLE encodings in Robot Framework 3.0.
Get File Size path Returns and logs file size as an integer in bytes.
Get Modified Time path, format=timestamp Returns the last modification time of a file or directory.
How time is returned is determined based on the given format string as follows. Note that all
checks are case-insensitive. Returned time is also automatically logged.
1) If format contains the word epoch , the time is returned in seconds after the UNIX epoch.
The return value is always an integer.
2) If format contains any of the words year , month , day , hour , min or sec , only the
selected parts are returned. The order of the returned parts is always the one in the previous
sentence and the order of the words in format is not significant. The parts are returned as
zero-padded strings (e.g. May -> 05 ).
3) Otherwise, and by default, the time is returned as a timestamp string in the format 2006-02-
24 15:08:31 .
Examples (when the modified time of ${CURDIR} is 2006-03-29 15:06:21):
${time} = Get Modified Time ${CURDIR}
${secs} = Get Modified Time ${CURDIR} epoch
${year} = Get Modified Time ${CURDIR} return year
${y} ${d} = Get Modified Time ${CURDIR} year,day
@{time} = Get Modified Time ${CURDIR} year,month,day,hour,min,sec

=>
${time} = '2006-03-29 15:06:21'
${secs} = 1143637581
${year} = '2006'
${y} = '2006' & ${d} = '29'
@{time} = ['2006', '03', '29', '15', '06', '21']
Grep File path, pattern, Returns the lines of the specified file that match the pattern .
encoding=UTF-8,
encoding_errors=strict This keyword reads a file from the file system using the defined path , encoding and
encoding_errors similarly as Get File. A difference is that only the lines that match the
given pattern are returned. Lines are returned as a single string catenated back together with
newlines and the number of matched lines is automatically logged. Possible trailing newline is
never returned.
A line matches if it contains the pattern anywhere in it and it does not need to match the
pattern fully. The pattern matching syntax is explained in introduction, and in this case matching
is case-sensitive.
Examples:
${errors} = Grep File /var/log/myapp.log ERROR
${ret} = Grep File ${CURDIR}/file.txt [Ww]ildc??d ex*ple

If more complex pattern matching is needed, it is possible to use Get File in combination with
String library keywords like Get Lines Matching Regexp.
Join Path base, *parts Joins the given path part(s) to the given base path.
The path separator ( / or \ ) is inserted when needed and the possible absolute paths handled
as expected. The resulted path is also normalized.
Examples:
 ${path} = Join Path my path
${p2} = Join Path my/ path/
${p3} = Join Path my path my file.txt
${p4} = Join Path my /path
${p5} = Join Path /my/path/ .. path2

=>
${path} = 'my/path'
${p2} = 'my/path'
${p3} = 'my/path/my/file.txt'
${p4} = '/path'
${p5} = '/my/path2'
Join Paths base, *paths Joins given paths with base and returns resulted paths.
See Join Path for more information.
Examples:
@{p1} = Join Paths base example other
@{p2} = Join Paths /my/base /example other
@{p3} = Join Paths my/base example/path/ other one/more

=>
@{p1} = ['base/example', 'base/other']
@{p2} = ['/example', '/my/base/other']
@{p3} = ['my/base/example/path', 'my/base/other', 'my/base/one/more']
List Directories In path, pattern=None, Wrapper for List Directory that returns only directories.
Directory absolute=False
List Directory path, pattern=None, Returns and logs items in a directory, optionally filtered with pattern .
absolute=False
File and directory names are returned in case-sensitive alphabetical order, e.g. ['A Name',
'Second', 'a lower case name', 'one more'] . Implicit directories . and .. are
not returned. The returned items are automatically logged.
File and directory names are returned relative to the given path (e.g. 'file.txt' ) by default.
If you want them be returned in absolute format (e.g. '/home/robot/file.txt' ), give the
absolute argument a true value (see Boolean arguments).
If pattern is given, only items matching it are returned. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction, and in this case matching is case-sensitive.
Examples (using also other List Directory variants):
@{items} = List Directory ${TEMPDIR}
@{files} = List Files In Directory /tmp *.txt absolute
${count} = Count Files In Directory ${CURDIR} ???

List Files In path, pattern=None, Wrapper for List Directory that returns only files.
Directory absolute=False
Log Environment level=INFO Logs all environment variables using the given log level.
Variables
Environment variables are also returned the same way as with Get Environment Variables
keyword.
Log File path, encoding=UTF-8, Wrapper for Get File that also logs the returned file.
encoding_errors=strict
The file is logged with the INFO level. If you want something else, just use Get File and the built-
in keyword Log with the desired level.
See Get File for more information about encoding and encoding_errors arguments.
Move Directory source, destination Moves the source directory into a destination.
Uses Copy Directory keyword internally, and source and destination arguments have
exactly same semantics as with that keyword.
Move File source, destination Moves the source file into the destination.
Arguments have exactly same semantics as with Copy File keyword. Destination file path is
returned since Robot Framework 2.9.2.
If the source and destination are on the same filesystem, rename operation is used. Otherwise
file is copied to the destination filesystem and then removed from the original filesystem.
 See also Move Files, Copy File, and Copy Files.
Move Files *sources_and_destination Moves specified files to the target directory.
Arguments have exactly same semantics as with Copy Files keyword.
See also Move File, Copy File, and Copy Files.
Normalize Path path, Normalizes the given path.
case_normalize=False
Collapses redundant separators and up-level references.
Converts / to \ on Windows.
Replaces initial ~ or ~user by that user's home directory. The latter is not supported on
Jython.
If case_normalize is given a true value (see Boolean arguments) on Windows,
converts the path to all lowercase. New in Robot Framework 3.1.
Examples:
${path1} = Normalize Path abc/
${path2} = Normalize Path abc/../def
${path3} = Normalize Path abc/./def//ghi
${path4} = Normalize Path ~robot/stuff

=>
${path1} = 'abc'
${path2} = 'def'
${path3} = 'abc/def/ghi'
${path4} = '/home/robot/stuff'
On Windows result would use \ instead of / and home directory would be different.
Remove Directory path, recursive=False Removes the directory pointed to by the given path .
If the second argument recursive is given a true value (see Boolean arguments), the
directory is removed recursively. Otherwise removing fails if the directory is not empty.
If the directory pointed to by the path does not exist, the keyword passes, but it fails, if the
path points to a file.
Remove *names Deletes the specified environment variable.
Environment
Variable Does nothing if the environment variable is not set.
It is possible to remove multiple variables by passing them to this keyword as separate
arguments.
Remove File path Removes a file with the given path.
Passes if the file does not exist, but fails if the path does not point to a regular file (e.g. it points to
a directory).
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. If the path is a pattern, all files matching it are removed.

Remove Files *paths Uses Remove File to remove multiple files one-by-one.
Example:
Remove Files ${TEMPDIR}${/}foo.txt ${TEMPDIR}${/}bar.txt ${TEMPDIR}${/}zap.txt

Run command Runs the given command in the system and returns the output.
The execution status of the command is not checked by this keyword, and it must be done
separately based on the returned output. If the execution return code is needed, either Run And
Return RC or Run And Return RC And Output can be used.
The standard error stream is automatically redirected to the standard output stream by adding
2>&1 after the executed command. This automatic redirection is done only when the executed
command does not contain additional output redirections. You can thus freely forward the
standard error somewhere else, for example, like my_command 2>stderr.txt .
The returned output contains everything written into the standard output or error streams by the
command (unless either of them is redirected explicitly). Many commands add an extra newline
( \n ) after the output to make it easier to read in the console. To ease processing the returned
output, this possible trailing newline is stripped by this keyword.
Examples:
 ${output} = Run ls -lhF /tmp
Log ${output}
${result} = Run ${CURDIR}${/}tester.py arg1 arg2
Should Not Contain ${result} FAIL
${stdout} = Run /opt/script.sh 2>/tmp/stderr.txt
Should Be Equal ${stdout} TEST PASSED
File Should Be Empty /tmp/stderr.txt

TIP: Run Process keyword provided by the Process library supports better process configuration
and is generally recommended as a replacement for this keyword.
Run And Return command Runs the given command in the system and returns the return code.
Rc
The return code (RC) is returned as a positive integer in range from 0 to 255 as returned by the
executed command. On some operating systems (notable Windows) original return codes can be
something else, but this keyword always maps them to the 0-255 range. Since the RC is an
integer, it must be checked e.g. with the keyword Should Be Equal As Integers instead of Should
Be Equal (both are built-in keywords).
Examples:
${rc} = Run and Return RC ${CURDIR}${/}script.py arg
Should Be Equal As Integers ${rc} 0
${rc} = Run and Return RC /path/to/example.rb arg1 arg2
Should Be True 0 < ${rc} < 42

See Run and Run And Return RC And Output if you need to get the output of the executed
command.
TIP: Run Process keyword provided by the Process library supports better process configuration
and is generally recommended as a replacement for this keyword.
Run And Return command Runs the given command in the system and returns the RC and output.
Rc And Output
The return code (RC) is returned similarly as with Run And Return RC and the output similarly as
with Run.
Examples:
${rc} ${output} = Run and Return RC and ${CURDIR}${/}mytool
Output
Should Be Equal As ${rc} 0
Integers
Should Not Contain ${output} FAIL
${rc} ${stdout} = Run and Return RC and /opt/script.sh
Output 2>/tmp/stderr.txt
Should Be True ${rc} > 42
Should Be Equal ${stdout} TEST PASSED
File Should Be Empty /tmp/stderr.txt

TIP: Run Process keyword provided by the Process library supports better process configuration
and is generally recommended as a replacement for this keyword.
Set Environment name, value Sets an environment variable to a specified value.
Variable
Values are converted to strings automatically. Set variables are automatically encoded using the
system encoding.
Set Modified Time path, mtime Sets the file modification and access times.
Changes the modification and access times of the given file to the value determined by mtime .
The time can be given in different formats described below. Note that all checks involving strings
are case-insensitive. Modified time can only be set to regular files.
1) If mtime is a number, or a string that can be converted to a number, it is interpreted as
seconds since the UNIX epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC). This documentation was originally
written about 1177654467 seconds after the epoch.
2) If mtime is a timestamp, that time will be used. Valid timestamp formats are YYYY-MM-DD
hh:mm:ss and YYYYMMDD hhmmss .
3) If mtime is equal to NOW , the current local time is used.
4) If mtime is equal to UTC , the current time in UTC is used.
5) If mtime is in the format like NOW - 1 day or UTC + 1 hour 30 min , the current
local/UTC time plus/minus the time specified with the time string is used. The time string format is
 described in an appendix of Robot Framework User Guide.
Examples:
Set Modified Time /path/file 1177654467 # Time given as epoch seconds
Set Modified Time /path/file 2007-04-27 9:14:27 # Time given as a timestamp
Set Modified Time /path/file NOW # The local time of execution
Set Modified Time /path/file NOW - 1 day # 1 day subtracted from the local time
Set Modified Time /path/file UTC + 1h 2min 3s # 1h 2min 3s added to the UTC time

Should Exist path, msg=None Fails unless the given path (file or directory) exists.
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
Should Not Exist path, msg=None Fails if the given path (file or directory) exists.
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. The default error message can be overridden with the msg argument.
Split Extension path Splits the extension from the given path.
The given path is first normalized (e.g. possible trailing path separators removed, special
directories .. and . removed). The base path and extension are returned as separate
components so that the dot used as an extension separator is removed. If the path contains no
extension, an empty string is returned for it. Possible leading and trailing dots in the file name are
never considered to be extension separators.
Examples:
${path} ${ext} = Split Extension file.extension
${p2} ${e2} = Split Extension path/file.ext
${p3} ${e3} = Split Extension path/file
${p4} ${e4} = Split Extension p1/../p2/file.ext
${p5} ${e5} = Split Extension path/.file.ext
${p6} ${e6} = Split Extension path/.file

=>
${path} = 'file' & ${ext} = 'extension'
${p2} = 'path/file' & ${e2} = 'ext'
${p3} = 'path/file' & ${e3} = ''
${p4} = 'p2/file' & ${e4} = 'ext'
${p5} = 'path/.file' & ${e5} = 'ext'
${p6} = 'path/.file' & ${e6} = ''
Split Path path Splits the given path from the last path separator ( / or \ ).
The given path is first normalized (e.g. a possible trailing path separator is removed, special
directories .. and . removed). The parts that are split are returned as separate components.
Examples:
${path1} ${dir} = Split Path abc/def
${path2} ${file} = Split Path abc/def/ghi.txt
${path3} ${d2} = Split Path abc/../def/ghi/

=>
${path1} = 'abc' & ${dir} = 'def'
${path2} = 'abc/def' & ${file} = 'ghi.txt'
${path3} = 'def' & ${d2} = 'ghi'
Touch path Emulates the UNIX touch command.
Creates a file, if it does not exist. Otherwise changes its access and modification times to the
current time.
Fails if used with the directories or the parent directory of the given file does not exist.
Wait Until Created path, timeout=1 minute Waits until the given file or directory is created.
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. If the path is a pattern, the keyword returns when an item matching it is
created.
The optional timeout can be used to control the maximum time of waiting. The timeout is
given as a timeout string, e.g. in a format 15 seconds , 1min 10s or just 10 . The time
 string format is described in an appendix of Robot Framework User Guide.
If the timeout is negative, the keyword is never timed-out. The keyword returns immediately, if the
path already exists.
Wait Until path, timeout=1 minute Waits until the given file or directory is removed.
Removed
The path can be given as an exact path or as a glob pattern. The pattern matching syntax is
explained in introduction. If the path is a pattern, the keyword waits until all matching items are
removed.
The optional timeout can be used to control the maximum time of waiting. The timeout is
given as a timeout string, e.g. in a format 15 seconds , 1min 10s or just 10 . The time
string format is described in an appendix of Robot Framework User Guide.
If the timeout is negative, the keyword is never timed-out. The keyword returns immediately, if the
path does not exist in the first place.

Altogether 56 keywords.
Generated by Libdoc on 2019-05-24 11:14:46.

OperatingSystem
Library version: 3.1.2
Library scope: global
Named arguments: supported

Introduction
A test library providing keywords for OS related tasks.
OperatingSystem is Robot Framework's standard library that enables various operating system related tasks to be performed in the system
where Robot Framework is running. It can, among other things, execute commands (e.g. Run), create and remove files and directories (e.g. Create
File, Remove Directory), check whether files or directories exists or contain something (e.g. File Should Exist, Directory Should Be Empty) and
manipulate environment variables (e.g. Set Environment Variable).

Table of contents
Path separators
Pattern matching
Tilde expansion
Boolean arguments
Example
Shortcuts
Keywords

Path separators
Because Robot Framework uses the backslash ( \ ) as an escape character in the test data, using a literal backslash requires duplicating it like in
c:\\path\\file.txt . That can be inconvenient especially with longer Windows paths, and thus all keywords expecting paths as arguments
convert forward slashes to backslashes automatically on Windows. This also means that paths like ${CURDIR}/path/file.txt are operating
system independent.
Notice that the automatic path separator conversion does not work if the path is only a part of an argument like with Run and Start Process
keywords. In these cases the built-in variable ${/} that contains \ or / , depending on the operating system, can be used instead.

Pattern matching
Some keywords allow their arguments to be specified as glob patterns where:
* matches any string, even an empty string
? matches any single character
[chars] matches one character in the bracket
[!chars] matches one character not in the bracket
[a-z] matches one character from the range in the bracket
[!a-z] matches one character not from the range in the bracket

Unless otherwise noted, matching is case-insensitive on case-insensitive operating systems such as Windows.
Starting from Robot Framework 2.9.1, globbing is not done if the given path matches an existing file even if it would contain a glob pattern.

Tilde expansion
Paths beginning with ~ or ~username are expanded to the current or specified user's home directory, respectively. The resulting path is
operating system dependent, but typically e.g. ~/robot is expanded to C:\Users\<user>\robot on Windows and
/home/<user>/robot on Unixes.
The ~username form does not work on Jython.

Boolean arguments
Some keywords accept arguments that are handled as Boolean values true or false. If such an argument is given as a string, it is considered false if
it is an empty string or equal to FALSE , NONE , NO , OFF or 0 , case-insensitively. Other strings are considered true regardless their value, and
other argument types are tested using the same rules as in Python.
True examples:
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=True # Strings are generally true.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=yes # Same as the above.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=${TRUE} # Python True is true.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=${42} # Numbers other than 0 are true.

False examples:
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=False # String false is false.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=no # Also string no is false.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=${EMPTY} # Empty string is false.
Remove Directory ${path} recursive=${FALSE} # Python False is false.

Considering string NONE false is new in Robot Framework 3.0.3 and considering also OFF and 0 false is new in Robot Framework 3.1.

Example
Setting Value
Library OperatingSystem

Variable Value
${PATH} ${CURDIR}/example.txt

Test Case Action Argument Argument

Example Create File ${PATH} Some text
File Should Exist ${PATH}
Copy File ${PATH} ~/file.txt
${output} = Run ${TEMPDIR}${/}script.py arg