


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


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 intermedi-
       ates, determined using the Unix '/' separator) created.

       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 argu-
       ments:

       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 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)

       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.  Sym-
       links are simply deleted and not followed.



2001-05-24                 perl v5.6.1                          1





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


       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.

AUTHORS
       Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk> and Charles Bailey <bai-
       ley@newman.upenn.edu>











































2001-05-24                 perl v5.6.1                          2


