sub new {
  my $class = shift;
  my $base  = shift;
  my $self = {};
  bless $self, $class;

  # store my base for later
  $self->{base} = $base;

  $debug && print "spawned with base [$base]\n";

  # read in contents of current directory
  opendir (BASE, $base);
  my @entries = grep !/^\.\.?\z/, readdir BASE;
  chomp(@entries);
  closedir(BASE);

  for my $entry (@entries) {
print "DEBUG: processing '$base/$entry'\n";

    # if entry is a directory, launch a new File::List to explore it
    # and store a reference to the new object in the dirlist hash
    if (-d "$base/$entry") {
      $debug && print _trace(),"following directory $base/$entry\n";
      my $newbase = new File::List("$base/$entry");
      $self->{dirlist}{ $entry } = $newbase;
    }

    # if entry is a file, store it's name in the dirlist hash
    elsif ( -f "$base/$entry"){
      $debug && print _trace(),"Found file : $base/$entry\n";
      $self->{dirlist}{ $entry } = 1;
    }
else {
  print "DEBUG: '$base/$entry' is not -f nor -d\n";
}
  }

  return $self;
}