check if directory exists 1

[sacgirl]

$path = "folder1\folder2\folder3";
if (system($createdir)) { print "mkdir failed\n"; };


I want to check if this directory exists before creating it. $cpath is a relative path. I want to create it only if it doesn't exist. I'm using Windows..can anyone help me?

I tried -d and -e, it doesn't work...

 

[MikeLacey]

Hi,

This works on my system

WinXP Home, Perl v5.8.6

$dir = 'c:/mike/tmp/';

unless(-d $dir){
mkdir $dir or die;
}


Mike

I am not inscrutable.

Want great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at faq219-2884

 

[KevinADC]

well, you are checking if the system call is true:

if (system($createdir)) { print "mkdir failed\n"; };

so you would write it like this:

if (system($createdir)) { print "mkdir good\n"; }
else { print "mkdir failed";}

but it's easier to do it like this:

print "mkdir failed\n" unless (system($createdir));

 

[kordaff]

use strict;
my $path = "folder1/folder2/folder3";
# need to use forward slashes for perl, even under windows.
my $createdir="mkdir -p $path";
# does mkdir -p work under windows???
if (-d $path)
{ print "$path exists\n" }
else
{ print "mkdir failed\n" unless system($createdir) }

 

[sacgirl]

I tried Mike's code..the problem arise when I need to create a folder with space in the folder name


$dir = 'c:/mike/tmp oops space/';

unless(-d $dir){
mkdir $dir or die;
}

This will die.

 

[kordaff]

Escape the spaces with \'s like

$dir = 'c:/mike/tmp\ oops\ space/';

 

[kordaff]

Or

$dir =~ s/ /\\ /g;

 

[KevinADC]

spaces are OK on a windows machine so they shouldn't be a problem. Capture the return message of die and see what it reports:


$dir = 'c:/mike/tmp oops space/';

unless(-d $dir){
mkdir $dir or die "Couldn't create dir: [$dir] ($!)";
}

 

[ishnid]

In case you were implying otherwise, Kevin: spaces are perfectly ok in *nix directory names too.

 

[kordaff]

*cough* evil *cough*

 

[sacgirl]

$dir = 'c:/mike/tmp oops space/';

unless(-d $dir){
mkdir $dir or die "Couldn't create dir: [$dir] ($!)";
}



I ran above script..and got this error msg.

C:\PerlScripts>test.pl
Couldn't create dir: [c:/mike/
\PerlScripts\test.pl line 4.

I followed kodaff's code to replace the spaces

$dir =~ s/ /\\ /g;

and got this error message

C:\PerlScripts>test.pl
Couldn't create dir: [c:/mike/tmp\ oops\ space/] (No such file or directory) at
C:\PerlScripts\test.pl line 9.

Can anyone try it on their windows environment?

 

[rharsh]

Maybe try something like:

$dir = '"c:/mike/tmp oops space/"';

 

[KevinADC]

it's because you are trying to create a directory and a sub directory at the same time, Windows doesn't like that. I think there is a module that will allow you to create directories with sub directories even if the OS doesn't allow that.

 

[rharsh]

Hmmm.. from a cmd shell, I can type

mkdir "c:/mike/tmp oops space/"

without 'c:\mike' existing and it will create both directories for me.

I haven't tried it from a perl script yet, but it looks like WinXP does ok with creating a directory and subdirectory at the same time.

 

[KevinADC]

found it:

use File::Path;
my $dir = 'c:/mike/tmp oops space/';
mkpath($dir, 1);

remove the 1 as the second argument if you don't want to print the directories to the screen as they are created.

 

[KevinADC]

Could be the XP mkdir kernel supports more than one level of mkdir, seems Win98 doesn't though, which I use to test with. Either way, using File:ath should work.

 

[KevinADC]

I tried it from the command line of Win98 and it will not work for more than one level of directory creation.

 

[rharsh]

Yeah, you're right - File:ath will probably make it easier all the way around.

 

[sacgirl]

yes, finally, this works..thanks! I'll read up on the Path module..not too familiar with it.