in reply to copy an epub as a file, not a directory

Presumably, a "local Apache web site" is a directory in the filesystem somewhere? As choroba mentioned, Perl should not be magically unpacking ZIP archives while copying them.

Is "'ls'" the system ls command, examining that local directory that Apache is serving files from?

Check your Apache configuration: are you using some kind of module that magically translates ZIP archives to directories?

There is some kind of magic that has been set up here that needs to be dispelled. Can you post the Perl code that copies the files, preferably as an update to your post?

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Re^2: copy an epub as a file, not a directory
by Trudge (Acolyte) on Sep 12, 2019 at 23:02 UTC

    Thank you for your input. This is frustrating to me because this script DID work for many books, and only recently has it gone wonky. Hence my posting here.

    Yes, the 'ls' is the OSX system command. Under that author here is what ls tells me:

    ls -al "/Volumes/Backup3/httpd/public/local/fiction/data/Baldacci,Davi
+d"
-rw-r--r--@  1 user  admin  3115762 Feb 13  2019 End Game.epub
drwxr-xr-x   6 user  admin      204 May 30  2016 Saving Faith.epub

    [download]

    As you can see 'Saving Faith' is a directory, and only 204 bytes. But in Finder it shows up as 1MB and opens in iBooks.

    As for other possibilities, I haven't altered the Apache config for years - if it works I leave it alone. No modules in there.

    Something screwy in Skagway here :)

[reply]
[d/l]

      Did it stop working after an OSX update? As I mentioned in another reply, MacOS X plays games like this.

      The actual epub file is probably in that directory somewhere, so you will need to improve your Perl script to check if the "file" that it has been asked to copy is actually a directory (the -d file test operator should help here) and, if so, search within to locate the actual file and copy the real file and not the Apple "file".

[reply]
[d/l]

        I'm not sure about the OSX updates. This machine can't get beyond High Sierra 10.13.6, and I haven't seen any security updates for a while.

        Looking at the file via Finder -> Show Package Contents shows me a typical epub layout with files and directories.

        When I check the file with -d, it comes back positive as a directory, but of course searching within it does not show me a single file.

        I'm beginning to wonder if the original epub file has something compromised.

[reply]

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