Grep file out of directory and read into array

Jalcock501 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks

This is probably really simple but I cannot for the life of me find any material on this.

I need to write a script that allows someone to enter a reference code when prompted, I already have this but.... I need the script to search a directory full of other directories for a file containing that string which I assume I can use grep for, the difficult bit, for me, is I want to grep the file and then read it into an array like this

pseudo code:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use warn;

my $REF;
my @LINES;
my $DPT_DIR=/shares/test/PPdir/

print "ENTER REF NUMBER";
chomp($REF = <>);

grep "$REF" */*.dpt
open my $FH, '<', *.dpt file grep has found
chomp(@LINES, $FH);
close $FH
[download]

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jim

EDIT: Apologies it has be come apparent to me this isn't very clear, I don't need the list of files in an array but the contents of a single file.

Linux grep:

#grep -l ABC123 */*.dpt
lloydf/test.dpt <-- I need to read this file.
[download]

there are going to be several *.dpt all containing different refs which is why I need to do a grep/find

Comment on Grep file out of directory and read into array Select or Download Code

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Re: Grep file out of directory and read into array by pme (Monsignor) on Dec 08, 2014 at 13:59 UTC
Hi Jim, See 'man File::Find' or you can use `find` command like this @files = `find . -name "pattern"`; if you are on linux. Regards UPDATE: This is a gentle introduction: Beginners guide to File::Find	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Grep file out of directory and read into array by Jalcock501 (Sexton) on Dec 08, 2014 at 15:18 UTC
Hi pme So I have tried your suggestion and I am now getting this error `Can't use string ("find . -name .dpt \| xargs grep "...) as a symbol ref while "strict refs" in use at ./perlref.pl line 14, <> line 1.` Here is my code as it stands can you see anything the pops out at you `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; my $REG; my @REGARRAY; my $INI_DIR='/shares/MILKLINK/PPdir'; print "Enter Reg Number: "; chomp ($REG = <>); my $FILE = ('find %s .dpt \| xargs grep -l %s',$INI_DIR,$REG); open $FILE, '<', my $DPT; chomp(@REGARRAY, $FILE); close $FILE; foreach my $ITEM (@REGARRAY) { system("/shares/optiload/prog/indref.sh $ITEM"); }` [download] The file it should pick up is test.dpt `PX12RUJ PX12RUR PX12RUV #PX12RUU PX12WLJ #PX12WLL PX12WLK PX12RUW WN14YGV WN14YGY` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Grep file out of directory and read into array by pme (Monsignor) on Dec 08, 2014 at 15:37 UTC
Hi Jim, Try this: #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use Data::Dumper; my $INI_DIR='/shares/MILKLINK/PPdir'; my $REG; print "Enter Reg Number: "; chomp ($REG = <>); my @FILE = `find $INI_DIR -name *.dpt \| xargs grep -l $REG`; print Dumper(\@FILE) . "\n"; [download] Those quotes around 'find' are backquotes. It is unclear to me what you want to do with the grepped lines.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Grep file out of directory and read into array by Jalcock501 (Sexton) on Dec 08, 2014 at 15:50 UTC
Re^4: Grep file out of directory and read into array by Jalcock501 (Sexton) on Dec 08, 2014 at 16:36 UTC
Re^2: Grep file out of directory and read into array by Jalcock501 (Sexton) on Dec 08, 2014 at 14:01 UTC
Thankfully yes this is for a linux box, I'll take a look! thank you.	[reply]
Re: Grep file out of directory and read into array by marto (Cardinal) on Dec 08, 2014 at 14:03 UTC
"which I assume I can use grep for" Why assume when you can look it up and test things easily? Starting point grep "search a directory full of other directories..." perlfaq5 How do I traverse a directory tree?, File::Find Also, that isn't Pseudocode, if you'd run your code you'd find the errors in it.	[reply]
Re: Grep file out of directory and read into array by RichardK (Parson) on Dec 08, 2014 at 15:44 UTC
I find File::Find::Rule much easier to use that File::Find and for this case even has a grep method. So you code to get the file-names containing your pattern(s) could look something like this (untested ) `my @files = File::Find::Rule->file() ->name( '*.dpt' ) ->grep( $pattern ) ->in( $dir );` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Grep file out of directory and read into array (find/rule) by Anonymous Monk on Dec 08, 2014 at 19:04 UTC
Same deal, less(?) typing :) also untested `use File::Find::Rule qw/ find rule/; my @files = rule()->file() ->name( '.dpt' ) ->grep( $pattern ) ->in( $dir );` [download] or even `my @files = find( file => name => '.dpt', grep => qr/pattern/, in => $dir, );` [download] or even `my @files = rule( file => name => '.dpt', grep => qr/pattern/, )->in( + $dir );` [download] or even an "iterator" version like foreach(@files) but without keeping a list of all the files in memory `rule( file => name => '.dpt', grep => qr/pattern/, )->exec(sub { my( $shortname, $path, $fullname ) = @_; ## do something with $fullname :) return !!0; # discard filename } ) ->in( $dir );` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]