What dependencies should I load and to use the WP_Filesystem?

I’m building a WordPress theme which has a WP_Filesystem call in it:

<?php $wp_filesystem = new WP_Filesystem_Direct(null);
        echo $wp_filesystem->get_contents(get_stylesheet_directory() . '/assets/images/Search_Glyph.svg'); ?>

I know that the WP_Filesystem needs some dependencies. I load them now like this in functions.php:

require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-base.php';
require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php';

I don’t know if this is the correct way to load the dependencies for the filesystem. I found an other question for plugin development and after some research I made the following code, which also works:

require_once ( ABSPATH . '/wp-admin/includes/file.php' );
WP_Filesystem();

What is the best way to load the dependencies for the WP_Filesystem? The first or the second code part? Or is there other code which I should use?

To me it seems the second, because WP_Filesystem() is a WordPress function, but I don’t know what it does exactly.

Many thanks in advance!

Answers:

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Method 1

What is the best way to load the dependencies for the WP_Filesystem?
The first or the second code part?

1. WP_Filesystem() is used in conjunction with the global $wp_filesystem variable, so if you use it, then the second code part should be used.

   And WP_Filesystem() must be called so that the global $wp_filesystem variable is properly initialized/setup, i.e. assigned with the proper class instance or file system method (see get_filesystem_method(), which defaults to WP_Filesystem_Direct).

2. If you’re not using the global $wp_filesystem variable, then you could just use the first one to manually load the dependencies which are loaded automatically by WP_Filesystem().

Example using the global $wp_filesystem variable:

global $wp_filesystem;

// Make sure that the above variable is properly setup.
require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/file.php';
WP_Filesystem();

// Check whether a file/directory exists.
$exists = $wp_filesystem->exists( '/some/path/here' );
var_dump( $exists );

// Get file content.
$data = $wp_filesystem->get_contents( 'path/to/file' );
var_dump( $data );

Example using a custom variable:

require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-base.php';
require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php';

$filesystem = new WP_Filesystem_Direct( false );

var_dump( $filesystem->exists( '/some/path/here' ) );

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