foreach my $file (</pathname/*>) {
    if( ($file ne "index.html") && ($file ne ".")
    && ($file ne "..") && ($file ne "cgi-bin") ) {$files = 1}
}

##</code><code>##

  my @files = grep(!/^(\.\.?|index\.html|cgi-bin)$/, </pathname/*>);
  if(@files) {
    # send email
  }