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

I can't seem to get stat() to work. I have the PERL BLACK BOOK and think I am following it to a "T" but I can't get anything to work. So, I am at your mercy Here is what I think is the relevant part of my script.....

my @files;
opendir (FILE,"/var/www/html/file") || die $!;
@files = grep {-f "/var/www/html/file/$_"} readdir (FILE);
closedir (FILE) || die $!;


foreach $files (sort(@files)) {
$mtime = stat($files);
print $mtime;
};

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All it does is print the number 1. Am I using this wrong or don't have some permissions set right or something?. I'm just trying to add a date the file was last modified. Thanks for any help

Edited 2002-01-10 by Ovid

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: A little help w/ stat() por favor...
by blakem (Monsignor) on Jan 11, 2002 at 06:34 UTC
    Since stat returns a list, you need to pick which element of that list interests you... Examining the stat man page shows mtime at index number 9. So, you might try:

    $mtime = stat($files)[9]; 

    $mtime = (stat($files))[9];

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    Or, if you'd like a relative "time since" in fractional days, you could use: 
    $days_since_modified = -M $files;

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    Update: /me ducks to avoid the flying trout and fixes the syntax error

    -Blake

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      Thanks for the fast reply. When I tried

      $mtime = stat($files)[9];

      I got syntax errors and it wouldn't work.

      $mtime = -M $files;

      printed out 1's next to each file.

      Any other suggestions?
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        Oops, sorry... that should have been: 
        $mtime = (stat($files))[9];

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        -Blake

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      This is in response to the correction. I am still just getting the number 1 with any of the 13 elements that I try
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Re (tilly) 1: A little help w/ stat() por favor...
by tilly (Archbishop) on Jan 11, 2002 at 07:21 UTC
    As the usual rant goes, you are not using strict.pm, your error checks on open should include an explanation of the error, the filename and $! (you only include $!), and you should have a consistent indentation style.

    While none relate to your specific question, all of them will wind up helping you again and again.

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Re: A little help w/ stat() por favor...
by clintp (Curate) on Jan 11, 2002 at 07:11 UTC
    Maybe I missed this in the suggestions: but the files coming back from readdir don't have the full pathname, and you're storing them that way (just the filenames). When you -f them, you're remembering to append the pathname on them, but when you stat the files later...you forgot to prepend "/var/www/..." again. (In addition to the other problem of not using stat()'s return value correctly.)
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Re: A little help w/ stat() por favor...
by nikos (Scribe) on Jan 14, 2002 at 03:17 UTC
    You should get the 10th element of the list returned by "stat". 
    
$mtime=(stat($files))[9];

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    I consider 1 to be returned just as a "flag" that there is an answer. ;) A very stupid explanation from me btw, sorry
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