perl unlink?

sk8guitar · 08-12-2003, 11:48 AM

hey, i am trying to delete all the files in a folder and the folder itself, and when i run this:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
#

chomp($day=`date +%w`);

sub delete_files
{
        my $directory=$_[0];
        #print "$directory":
        opendir DH,"$directory" or warn "can't open $directory";
        foreach $file (readdir DH)
        {
                print "deleting $file\n";
                unlink "$file" or warn "failed $file - $!\n";
        };
};


if($day==2)
{
        &delete_files(Sunday);
        rmdir "Sunday";
        mkdir "Tuesday",0755;
};

i get hte followng warning error

Code:

deleting .
failed . - Is a directory
deleting ..
failed .. - Is a directory
deleting test.txt
failed test.txt - No such file or directory

of course the first 2 are expected, but the last one? test.txt? why isn't it being deleted?

david_ross · 08-12-2003, 12:36 PM

Try using the full path and check your permissions. You would be easier making a call to rm for this sor of job though - replace

Code:

#print "$directory":
        opendir DH,"$directory" or warn "can't open $directory";
        foreach $file (readdir DH)
        {
                print "deleting $file\n";
                unlink "$file" or warn "failed $file - $!\n";
        };

with

Code:

$out=`rm -rf $directory 2>&1`;
print $out;

acid_kewpie · 08-12-2003, 12:56 PM

am i right in thinking you shouldn't be surrounding the unlink parameter with quotes... won't htat make the marks part of the filename or similar along those lines?

sk8guitar · 08-12-2003, 01:25 PM

dunno acid, i'm just following my oreilly book. i tried without quotes and got hte same error.

what does the

Code:

$directory 2>&1

2>&1 mean in that command?

sk8guitar · 08-12-2003, 01:28 PM

thanks david, works like a charm. i didn't realize rm had a recursive command or else i would've used that.

david_ross · 08-12-2003, 01:29 PM

It will direct stderr to stdout so that any error messages that arise from the rm command will be shown too.

david_ross · 08-12-2003, 01:29 PM

No problem

sk8guitar · 08-12-2003, 06:41 PM

how do you direct stdout to stderr?

kev82 · 08-12-2003, 06:49 PM

sk8guitar · 08-12-2003, 06:54 PM

so does 1 mean stderr and 2 mean stdout? what does the & mean?

kev82 · 08-12-2003, 07:55 PM

0=stdin, 1=stdout, 2=stderr

i think the & tells bash you mean the file descriptor, 2>1 would redirect stderr to a file called 1. check out the redirection section of the bash man page.

sk8guitar · 08-13-2003, 10:44 AM

cool, thanks