File::Path - create or remove directory trees |
File::Path - create or remove directory trees
use File::Path;
mkpath(['/foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 0711); rmtree(['foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 1);
The mkpath
function provides a convenient way to create directories, even
if your mkdir
kernel call won't create more than one level of directory at
a time. mkpath
takes three arguments:
mkpath
to print the name of each directory as it is created
(defaults to FALSE), and
the numeric mode to use when creating the directories
(defaults to 0777)
It returns a list of all directories (including intermediates, determined using the Unix '/' separator) created.
If a system error prevents a directory from being created, then the
mkpath
function throws a fatal error with Carp::croak
. This error
can be trapped with an eval
block:
eval { mkpath($dir) }; if ($@) { print "Couldn't create $dir: $@"; }
Similarly, the rmtree
function provides a convenient way to delete a
subtree from the directory structure, much like the Unix command rm -r
.
rmtree
takes three arguments:
rmtree
to
print a message each time it examines a file, giving the
name of the file, and indicating whether it's using rmdir
or unlink
to remove it, or that it's skipping it.
(defaults to FALSE)
a boolean value, which if TRUE will cause rmtree
to
skip any files to which you do not have delete access
(if running under VMS) or write access (if running
under another OS). This will change in the future when
a criterion for 'delete permission' under OSs other
than VMS is settled. (defaults to FALSE)
It returns the number of files successfully deleted. Symlinks are simply deleted and not followed.
NOTE: If the third parameter is not TRUE, rmtree
is unsecure
in the face of failure or interruption. Files and directories which
were not deleted may be left with permissions reset to allow world
read and write access. Note also that the occurrence of errors in
rmtree can be determined only by trapping diagnostic messages
using $SIG{__WARN__}
; it is not apparent from the return value.
Therefore, you must be extremely careful about using rmtree($foo,$bar,0
in situations where security is an issue.
Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk> and Charles Bailey <bailey@newman.upenn.edu>
File::Path - create or remove directory trees |