Question

I am a beginner PERL programmer and I have come across a snag that I can’t get by. I have been reading and re-reading web posts and Simon Cozens book at perl.org all day, but can’t seem to solve the problem.

My intention with the code below is to loop through files in a directory and when the file has a certain string a name to verify that the same file name doesn’t exist with a different extension and if it doesn’t, to print me the file name (later I will implement a delete of the file, but for now I want to ensure it will work.) Specifically, I am finding .mdb files and after checking there are no associated .ldb’s files, deleting the .mdb file.

right now my code returns this:

RRED_Database_KHOVIS.ldb
RRED_Database_KHOVIS.mdb
I will kill RRED_Database_KHOVIS.mdb

RRED_Database_mkuttler.mdb
I will kill RRED_Database_mkuttler.mdb

RRED_Database_SBreslow.ldb
RRED_Database_SBreslow.mdb
I will kill RRED_Database_SBreslow.mdb

i want it to only return the “I will kill…” after a .mdb file with no associated .ldb file.

My current code is below. I appreciate any help offered…

use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Find;
use diagnostics;

my $dir = "//vfg1msfs01ab/vfgcfs01\$/Regulatory Reporting/Access Database/";
my $filename = "RRED_Database";
my $fullname, my $ext;

opendir DH, $dir or die "Couldn't open the directory: $!";
while ($_ = readdir(DH)) {
my $ext = ".mdb";
if ((/$filename/) && ($_ ne $filename . $ext)) {
    print "$_ \n";
    unless (-e $dir . s/.mdb/.ldb/) {
        s/.ldb/.mdb/;
        print "I will kill $_ \n\n" ;
        #unlink $_ or print "oops, couldn't delete $_: $!\n";
    }
    s/.ldb/.mdb/;
}   
}

Answer 1

When looping through files, I like to use ‘next’ statements repeatedly to assure that I’m only looking at exactly what I want. Try this:

use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Find;
use diagnostics;

my $dir = "//vfg1msfs01ab/vfgcfs01\$/Regulatory Reporting/Access Database/";
my $filename = "RRED_Database";
my $fullname, my $ext;

opendir DH, $dir or die "Couldn't open the directory: $!";
while ($_ = readdir(DH)) {
  my $ext = ".mdb";

  # Jump to next while() iteration unless the file begins 
  # with $filename and ends with $ext, 
  # and capture the basename in $1
  next unless $_ =~ m|($filename.*)$ext|;

  # Jump to next while() iteration if if the file basename.ldb is found
  next if -f $1 . ".ldb";

  # At this point, we have an mdb file with no matching ldb file
  print "$_ \n";
  print "I will kill $_ \n\n" ;
  #unlink $_ or print "oops, couldn't delete $_: $!\n";
}