sub traversePath($path)
{
  ##DEBUG##
  print "\nDEBUG:traversing path '$path'\n";
  ##DEBUG##

  # will contain combined filesize of all files in pwd
  $totalSize = 0;

  # convert any backslashes to fwdslashes
  $path =~ s/\\/\//g;

  # open up the current dir
  opendir(PATH,$path);

  # check for trailing slash and remove if found
  if(substr($path,-1,1) eq "/") {chop($path)} 

  #read files & subdirs into @subdirs
  @subdirs = readdir(PATH);
  closedir(PATH);

  # loop through them all
  foreach $subdir (@subdirs)
  {
    # construct full pathname to current subdir or file
    $npath = $path."/".$subdir;

    # not a dir, just a file, perform a function
    # which returns the byte size of said file
    if(! -d $npath)
    {
      $totalSize += writeFile($npath);
    }
    # is a subdir
    else
    {
      # dont mess with cwd or parent dir
      if($npath ne "." && $npath ne "..")
      {
        ##DEBUG##
        print "\nDEBUG:npath='$npath'\n";
        ##DEBUG##

        # call new instance of self and pass as param
        # to other function which records total bytesize
        # of directory
        writeDir($npath,
          traversePath($npath)
        );
      }
    }
  }
  # return bytesize of any files found in current dir
  return $totalSize;
}