Working with the Core FS Interface: Files, Directories, and Basic Operations (2/9)

The FS interface in Go provides a standardized way to interact with file systems, making code portable across different storage backends. The FS interface is minimal, containing only the Open method, which serves as the entry point to any filesystem. The Open method takes a path and returns a File interface or an error, and every filesystem operation flows through this single method. The File interface provides fundamental operations for reading file content and accessing metadata, including the Read, Stat, and Close methods. The Stat method provides access to file metadata without reading the file content, and the Close method releases resources associated with the file. The FileInfo interface provides rich metadata about files and directories, including the file name, size, mode, modification time, and whether the file is a directory. Proper resource management is crucial when working with files, and forgetting to close files can lead to resource exhaustion. The FS interface defines several standard error types that provide semantic meaning beyond generic error strings, including ErrNotExist, ErrPermission, and ErrInvalid. Understanding these error types allows for intelligent handling of different failure scenarios. Finally, proper error handling patterns involve checking file accessibility, distinguishing between different error types, wrapping errors with context, and handling close errors appropriately.