I made the below work on my web server. Will just be a few changes for you to make.

#!/usr/bin/perl -T

BEGIN {
  $| = 1;
  open(STDERR, ">&STDOUT");
  print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
}

my $dirfile = "/home2/jmelpubs/public_html/jimmelanson/programming/dow
+nload/directory.txt";
my $log = "/home2/jmelpubs/public_html/jimmelanson/programming/downloa
+d/logfile.txt";

my $global_file_count = 0;

if(open(LOGFILE, ">$log")) {
    if(open(DIRS, '<:encoding(UTF-8)', $dirfile)) {
        my @directorylist = <DIRS>;
        close DIRS;
        foreach my $dir (@directorylist) {
            if($dir =~ /[a-zA-Z1-9]/) {
                chomp($dir);
                if ( -e "$dir/Thumbs.db") {
                    unlink ("$dir/Thumbs.db") or print "thumbs.db $!\n
+";
                }
                opendir(READIT, $dir);
                my @files = readdir(READIT);
                closedir(READIT);
                my $directory_file_count = 0;
                foreach my $file (@files) {
                    unless(($file eq ".") || ($file eq "..")) {
                        $global_file_count++ unless(-d "$_/$file");
                        $directory_file_count++ unless(-d "$_/$file");
                    }
                }
                print LOGFILE "$dir : count is $directory_file_count\n
+";
            }
        }
        print LOGFILE "All directories count is $global_file_count\n";
        close LOGFILE;
    } else {
        die "failed to open file for reading.";
    }
    close LOGFILE;
} else {
    die "failed to open log file for writing.";
}
print "Final count is: $global_file_count\n";
exit;
[download]

This is what the logfile had when it was done:

/home2/jmelpubs/public_html/jimmelanson/books : count is 7
/home2/jmelpubs/public_html/jimmelanson/downloads : count is 1
/home2/jmelpubs/public_html/jimmelanson/images : count is 18
All directories count is 26
[download]

I can't post test/script download on here. I'll try to PM that to you if you want it.