Windows: File test operators fail outside of current directory 2

[SparceMatrix]

I want to be able to negotiate directories, this is fundamental to the text processing script that I am trying to write. I am finding that when I run a script from anywhere but the directory that I am trying to list, I cannot test the results of "readdir" for the presence of a directory (-d). I might be able to work around it by changing to the directory, but since I want to be able to list subdirectories as well, this will not work in the end.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $dir = 'C:\My Directory\My Other Directory\My Target Directory';
my $txt = 'output.txt';

opendir(DIR, $dir) || die "can't opendir $dir: $!";

my @files = readdir(DIR);

open ( my $fh_output, '>', $txt) or die $!;

foreach my $file ( @files ) {

	if (-e $file) { print $fh_output $file , "\n";  } 

}

closedir DIR;
close ( $fh_output );

If I call this script from any directory but "C:\My Directory\My Other Directory\My Target Directory", then output.txt is empty except for "." and "..". It would appear that the file test is failing for any File Test Operator I try. Sometimes files show up, but not consistantly enough to suggest a reason.

Does anybody have any idea why these tests fail like this? What can I do to loop through directories and subdirectories with PERL in Windows?

 

[KevinADC]

you must either be in the current directory if you use a file test operator on only a filename, or use the full path to the file if not in the current directory. How are you getting the @files array populated?

 

[stevexff]

So you need to change

if (-e $file) { print $fh_output $file , "\n";  }

to

if (-e $dir . "\\" . $file) { print $fh_output $file , "\n";  }

But if you are wanting to serach for files recursively, you should use Find::File

 

[KevinADC]

How are you getting the @files array populated?

oops... I missed this line when I read the question earlier:

my @files = readdir(DIR);

 

[SparceMatrix]

Yes, this is rather indirectly addressed in the documentation that comes with ActiveStates distribution for Windows: ActivePerl FAQ -> Windows Specific -> Windows Programming -> "Why doesn't the -d operator work?" Apparently, it is not just the -d operator that needed to be addressed.

Their example:

$path = shift;
    $path = "." unless $path;
    
    opendir( DIR, $path )
        or die "Can't open $path: $!";
    
    while ( $entry = readdir( DIR ) ) {
        $type = ( -d "$path\\$entry" ) ? "dir" : "file"; # $path is crucial!
        print "$type\t$entry\n";
    }
    
    closedir( DIR );