Re: Accent file names issue

I used the suggestions given by "Anonymous Monk" and I managed to find a solution to handle correctly string variables with direct text. Here's the code I created to test some common stuff:

use strict;
use warnings;

use utf8;
use feature 'unicode_strings';
use charnames ':full';

our $base = "c:\\users\\someuser\\documents";
our $dp = "$base\\documentação";

{

  my $new_dp = $dp;
  my $success = utf8::decode($new_dp);

  print "isutf8 test 1: ";
  if (utf8::is_utf8($dp)) { print "ok\n"; } else { print "nope\n"; }
  print "isutf8 test 2: ";
  if (utf8::is_utf8($new_dp)) { print "ok\n"; }
  else { print "nope\n"; }

  print "-d test 1: ";  
  if (-d $dp) { print "ok\n"; } else { print "nope\n"; };
  print "-d test 2: ";
  if (-d $new_dp) { print "ok\n"; } else { print "nope\n"; };
  
  my $dh;
  print "opendir test 1: ";
  if (opendir($dh, $dp)) { print "ok\n"; close($dh); }
  else { print "nope\n"; }
  print "opendir test 2: ";
  if (opendir($dh, $new_dp)) { print "ok\n"; close($dh); }
  else { print "nope\n"; }
  
  my $buf;
  print "dir test 1: ";
  $buf = `dir /b $dp 2> nul`; chop($buf);
  if ($buf ne "") { print "ok\n"; }  else { print "nope\n"; }
  print "dir test 2: ";
  $buf = `dir /b $new_dp 2> nul`; chop($buf);
  if ($buf ne "") { print "ok\n"; }  else { print "nope\n"; }

  my $r;
  print "dir test 1: ";
  $r = system("dir $dp > nul 2> nul");
  if ($r == 0) { print "ok\n"; }  else { print "nope\n"; }
  print "dir test 2: ";
  $r = system("dir $new_dp > nul 2> nul");
  if ($r == 0) { print "ok\n"; }  else { print "nope\n"; }
  
}
[download]

The output was:

C:\...>perl perlmonks2.pl
isutf8 test 1: ok
isutf8 test 2: nope
-d test 1: nope
-d test 2: ok
opendir test 1: nope
opendir test 2: ok
dir test 1: nope
dir test 2: ok
dir test 1: nope
dir test 2: ok
C:\...>
[download]

I will have to do some tests in other computers and with UNC file paths, but it seems that this is it. Now that it is working I can even live with it, but I really hope that future developing on Unicode and Perl can reduce the obscure use of lines of code for doing such simple things.

You guys are great, I wish all the best for who ever try to help.

Experience is the mother of all things, from it we kwnow radicaly the truth -- Duarte Pacheco Pereira, portuguese adventurer and the secret discoverer of America

Comment on Re: Accent file names issue Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^2: Accent file names issue
by vr (Curate) on Sep 22, 2017 at 00:40 UTC

Note: you only ~~get away~~ succeed with what you did, because Portuguese uses Latin1, and because utf8::decode modifies its argument even on failure (which is surprising).

The utf8::decode expects octets, but you're trying to feed it with proper Unicode. Of course it fails (check return value), but nevertheless, for whatever vague reason, it converts the utf8 string to latin1-encoded string, -- only when, it seems, such conversion is possible.

use strict;
use warnings;
use utf8;

my $x1 = my $x2 = 'ç';
die if utf8::decode($x2);

use Devel::Peek;

Dump $x1;
Dump $x2;
[download]

>perl test170921.pl
SV = PV(0xe1af88) at 0xd23560
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (POK,IsCOW,pPOK,UTF8)
  PV = 0xd6b458 "\303\247"\0 [UTF8 "\x{e7}"]
  CUR = 2
  LEN = 10
  COW_REFCNT = 1
SV = PV(0xe1af58) at 0xd22fc0
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (POK,pPOK)
  PV = 0xd6b5a8 "\347"\0
  CUR = 1
  LEN = 10
[download]

So this encoding from utf8 to latin1 (even though you did it inadvertently with call to decode) is just a special narrow case of what I wrote in this thread about encoding to your system codepage when reaching outside from Perl, and decoding whatever you fetch back.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]


Think about Loose Coupling
	PerlMonks