G'day peterr,

"cp: cannot create ... Is this simply because the file is attempted to be copied before the path exists ?"

No doubt:

$ > fred
$ cp fred not_a_real_dir/
cp: cannot create regular file 'not_a_real_dir/': Not a directory
$ mkdir not_a_real_dir/
$ cp fred not_a_real_dir/
$
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"How do I fix that please"

See the Perl function mkdir; and the make_path() function in the builtin module File::Path.

"Use of uninitialized value $nfile in string ne ... It is defined ... not initialised; is that all that needs doing there ?"

Yes, being defined is not the same as being initialised: that's what it's telling you.

$ perl -wE 'my $x; say $x ne "" ? 1 : 0'
Use of uninitialized value $x in string ne at -e line 1.
0
$ perl -wE 'my $x = ""; say $x ne "" ? 1 : 0'
0
$
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