Question

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use File::Copy;
use File::Spec;

my($chptr, $base_path, $new, $dir);

$dir = "Full Metal Alchemist"; #Some dir

opendir(FMA, $dir) or die "Can't open FMA dir";
while($chptr = readdir FMA){
$base_path = File::Spec->rel2abs($dir).'/'; #find absolute path of $fir
if($chptr =~ m(Chapter\w*\d*)){ #some regex to avoid the .. and . dirs
    $new = join(" 0", split(/\W/, $chptr)); #modify said sub directory
    rename "$base_path$chptr", "$base_path$new" ? print "Renames $base_path$chptr to
    $base_path$new\n" : die "rename failed $!";
    }
}
closedir FMA;

Originally, my script only used the relative path to preform the move op, but for some reason, this leaves the sub directories unaffected. My next step was to go to absolute pathing but to no avail. I am just learning Perl so I feel like I’m making a simple mistake. Where have I gone wrong? TIA

Answer 1

You could exclude . and .. as follows:

if ( $child ne '.' and $child ne '..' ) { ... }

Some general remarks:

• Always have a very clear spec of what you want to do. That also helps everybody trying to help you.
• It’s not clear what goes wrong here. Maybe your regex simply doesn’t match the directories you want it to match? What is the problem?
• Try to make very specific parts (like the name of the directory where you want to start processing) into parameters. Obviously, some specifics are harder to make into parameters, like what and how to rename.
• Using opendir, readdir, rename and File::Spec is fine for starting. There’s an easier way, though: take a look at the Path::Class module, and specifically its two subclasses. They provide a well-crafted abstraction layer over File::Spec (and more), and it’s basically a one-stop service for filesystem operations.