[SOLVED] Perl: Get file modified date without using stat

arashi256 · 01-27-2012, 05:02 AM

The stat.pm module in several server Perl installations appears to be broken with this error, although it works elsewhere: -

Use of uninitialized value in stat at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/File/stat.pm line 49.

Is there a way of getting a file's modified date without using stat?

kbp · 01-27-2012, 05:21 AM

You can always use a system call ... in regard to the error, I'd guess that you may be sending it unsanitised data.

arashi256 · 01-27-2012, 05:25 AM

Where is the unsanitised data here?

Code:

$file = "/path/to/some/file";
$file_handle = IO::File->new($file,'r');
$dttm_raw_modified = stat($file_handle)->mtime;

If I can't fix this, how do I do a system call?

kbp · 01-27-2012, 05:44 AM

When I say unsanitised I mean that there may be strange characters or spaces or the file may not exist or may be a relative path that's not correct from your scripts working directory. Basically the data may not be accurate.

You can use system() to call any executable in the system, for example:

Code:

system("stat $filename")

firstfire · 01-27-2012, 06:10 AM

Hi.

You will get that error if $file does not exists.
Try this:

Code:

use IO;
use File::stat;

$file = "/path/to/some/file";
$file_handle = IO::File->new($file,'r') or die "No $file: $!";
$dttm_raw_modified = stat($file_handle)->mtime;
print $dttm_raw_modified;

Cedrik · 01-27-2012, 07:04 AM

Or without file handle

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use File::stat;

$file = '/path/to/some/file';
$st = stat($file) or die "No $file: $!";

$dttm_raw_modified = $st->mtime;
print $dttm_raw_modified;

arashi256 · 01-27-2012, 07:09 AM

Ah, got it - misleading error making me think it was a problem with stat.pm, when it's actually a null file handle. Cheers