File::Path

File::Path(3)          Perl Programmers Reference Guide          File::Path(3)



NAME
       File::Path - create or remove directory trees

SYNOPSIS
           use File::Path;

           mkpath(['/foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 0711);
           rmtree(['foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 1);

DESCRIPTION
       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:

       o   the name of the path to create, or a reference to a list of paths
           to create,

       o   a boolean value, which if TRUE will cause "mkpath" to print the
           name of each directory as it is created (defaults to FALSE), and

       o   the numeric mode to use when creating the directories (defaults to
           0777)

       It returns a list of all directories (including intermediates, deter-
       mined 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:

       o   the root of the subtree to delete, or a reference to a list of
           roots.  All of the files and directories below each root, as well
           as the roots themselves, will be deleted.

       o   a boolean value, which if TRUE will cause "rmtree" to print a mes-
           sage 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)

       o   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 sim-
       ply 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.

DIAGNOSTICS
       o   On Windows, if "mkpath" gives you the warning: No such file or
           directory, this may mean that you've exceeded your filesystem's
           maximum path length.

AUTHORS
       Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk> and Charles Bailey <bailey@new-
       man.upenn.edu>



perl v5.8.6                       2001-09-21                     File::Path(3)