Perl File Handling Functions

chmod(mode, file_list)
Changes the permissions of a list of files.  e.g chmod(0755,"file1");

truncate(FILE,SIZE)
Truncates FILE to SIZE. FILE may be a filename or a filehandle.

link(OLDFILE,NEWFILE) 
Creates a new filename linked to the old filename. 

symlink(OLDFILE, NEWFILE) 
     Creates a new filename symbolically linked to the old filename. 

rename(OLDNAME, NEWNAME) 
Changes the name of a file. 

unlink(file_list) 
     Deletes a list of files. 



Perl File Handling: stat( )

stat(FILE) 
Returns a 13-element array  :
($dev, $ino, $mode, $nlink, $uid, $gid, $rdev, $size, 
                   $atime, $mtime, $ctime, $blksize, $blocks). 

FILE can be a filehandle, an expression evaluating to a filename.

$dev      device              
$ino      inode number   
$mode     permissions    
$nlink    link count   
$uid      user id               
$gid      group id  
$rdev     raw device     
$size     file size             
$atime    last access time
$mtime    last modification time    
$ctime    last status change time                  
$blksize  block size 
$blocks   number of blocks



 
File/Directory Attributes Test    -x

Perl uses -x to test for file/directory  attributes, where x
     
-r  readable
-w writeable    
-x executable     
-o owned by user
-e exists         
-z exists and zero size        
-s exists, non-zero size
-d directory        
-l symbolic link -S socket       
-T text file
-B binary    
-M  modification age in days  
-A access age in days 

e.g    $file = "file_name";
                if (-e $file) { }
                else {print "file missing"}   
	  # tests if the file exists



Perl Directory Handling  Functions

opendir(DIRHANDLE,directory_name)
     Opens a directory on the handle specified.

closedir(DIRHANDLE)
     Closes a directory opened by opendir.

readdir(DIRHANDLE)* 
     Returns the next entry (or an array of entries) in the directory.

rewinddir(DIRHANDLE)* 
     Positions the directory to the beginning

seekdir(DIRHANDLE,position)* 
     Sets position for readdir on the directory. 

 telldir(DIRHANDLE)* 
     Returns the position in the directory.