http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=367548

jevon has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I found dirname

oops. Forget it!

Hello Monks,

Given the string "/dir1/dir2/dir3/ .. /dirLast//"

is stored in a variable $myDirectory

How do I extract the entire path up to "/dirLast"?

Put simply, I want the path to the parent directory
of $myDirectory.

Thanks
Jevon

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Parent directory - regex
by gawatkins (Monsignor) on Jun 17, 2004 at 12:05 UTC

    Here is an example of a simple script to do this without using regex: 

    #!\usr\bin\perl

use strict;

my $myDirectory = "/dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dirLast//";

my @myDir = split('/', $myDirectory); 
#creates an array of Dir names

pop @myDir; 
#removes the currnet directory 

$myDirectory = join( '/', @myDir); 
#Joins names back into parent path

print $myDirectory;

    [download]

    Thanks,
    Greg W
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Re: Parent directory - regex
by davidj (Priest) on Jun 17, 2004 at 12:39 UTC
    Here's a way to do it with a regex

    
#!\usr\bin\perl

use strict;
my $myDirectory;
my $parent;

$myDirectory = "/dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dirLast//";

# with '/' after dirLast
($parent) = $myDirectory =~ m#(.+)/#;
print "$parent\n";

# without '/' after dirLast
($parent) = $myDirectory =~ m#(.+)//#;
print "$parent\n";

exit;

    [download]

    davidj
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Re: Parent directory - regex
by pbeckingham (Parson) on Jun 17, 2004 at 13:06 UTC

    With a regex, I'd do this, but I would ordinarily use File::Basename to do this: 

      my ($parent) = "/dir1/dir2/dir3/ .. /dirLast//" =~ m#^(.*)/.*?//$#;

    [download]

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Re: Parent directory - regex
by periapt (Hermit) on Jun 17, 2004 at 12:30 UTC
    There are many ways to do this sort of thing. If your path is always known in a string then one simple approach is this 
        my $path = "/dir1/dir2/dir3/ .. /dirn-1/dirLast//";
    my @pathary = split(/\//,$path);
    my $parentpath = join('/',@pathary[0..$#pathary-1]);
#    pop @path;                            # also
#    my $parentpath = join('/',@pathary);  # works
    print "$path\n$parentpath\n";

    [download]
    An alternative, if the directory your are in is unknown or changes in an unpredictible manner, might be something like this. Note: This is rather inefficient but works. 
        use Cwd;
    my $oldpath = getcwd();
    print "$oldpath\n";
    $path = '/var/tmpdir';
    chdir $path;
    $path = getcwd();  # for info only
    print "$path\n";   # for info only
    chdir "../";
    $path = getcwd();
    print "$path\n";

    [download]

    PJ
    We are drowning in information and starving for knowledge - Rutherford D. Rogers
    What good is knowledge if you have to pull teeth to get it - anonymous
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