How to work with paths and PathBuf

Use Path for immutable path references and PathBuf for owned, mutable paths. Convert between them using as_path() on PathBuf or Path::new() on string slices.

use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};

fn main() {
    let path_buf = PathBuf::from("/home/user/docs");
    let path: &Path = path_buf.as_path();
    let new_path = Path::new("/tmp");
    println!("Owned: {:?}, Borrowed: {:?}", path_buf, new_path);
}

Think of Path as a read-only view of a file location and PathBuf as a container you can edit and own. You use Path when you just need to check if a file exists or read it, and PathBuf when you need to build a path by adding folders or saving it for later. It is like the difference between looking at a map versus holding a physical piece of paper you can write on.