$folder =~ /^($bannedF[$_]).*/;
return BANNED if ($1);

##</code><code>##

use strict;
use warnings;

# Global variables:
use vars qw ( @BANNED $INC_SUBDIRS );
@BANNED = qw ( .
               ..
               c:/perl/progs
               c:/winnt/system32
               d:
              );
$INC_SUBDIRS = 1; # change to 0 or '' to turn off

print "Enter a full pathname: ";
chomp ( my $dir = <> );

# Remove trailing slashes:
$dir =~ s{[/\\]+$}{}g;          ;
print "Verboten!" and exit if is_banned( $dir );

# Just for testing:
opendir DIR, $dir or die "can't opendir $dir: $!";
print "$_\n" for readdir DIR;
closedir DIR;

sub is_banned {
   my $folder = lc shift; # lc for lower case
   for ( @BANNED ) {
      return 1 if $folder eq $_;
      if ( $INC_SUBDIRS ) {
          return 1 if $folder =~ /^$_\//;
      }
   }
}