in reply to recursive directory question

First, thanks for all the suggestions and comments. Particularly merlyn for his File::Find solution and jarich for his excellent explanation of my code and it's errors

This is now the most up to date version of the problem:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# Author: Ryan Scadlock    with significant help 
#    from Perlmonks merlyn, jarich, and Fletch
# Date: 6 July 2002
# Description: (UNIX only) Recurses through a directory structure and
# checks if more than half of the file in that directory have been use
+d
# in the past 180 days. The path of diectory which are predominately
# unused is apprended to a list.

use File::Find;
# file's date of last access is determining factor
my %access; #$access{$dirname}{old}, $access{$dirname}{new}

my $top = shift || ".";

find sub {
  return unless -f;
  $access{$File::Find::dir}{-A _ > 180 ? 'old' : 'new'}++; #date
}, $top; # put your topdirs here

for (sort keys %access) {
  if ($access{$_}{old} > $access{$_}{new}) {
    print "$_ has more old than new\n";
  }
}

[download]

A few problems remain. 1)This script needs to output to a file. The tree it will be searching contains thousands of directories; which would make that "print" scroll off the top. 2)There is a problem with the line
($ages{$_}{old} > $ages{$_}{new}) {
I get "use of unintialized value in numeric gt at ..." message from the interperter.
However, I am many hours closer to a working script than I was. So: Thanks

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: recursive directory question
by jarich (Curate) on Jul 09, 2002 at 01:02 UTC 
    # Usage: find_archive [directory 1] [directory 2] ... [directory n]

use File::Find;
# file's date of last access is determining factor
my %access; #$access{$dirname}{old}, $access{$dirname}{new}

my @top_dirs = @ARGV;                   # allows us to search over mul
+tiple trees
                                        # eg /home/jarich/ /home/aquil
+o/ if
                                        # specified on command line
push @top_dirs, "." unless @top_dirs;   # default behaviour
my $results_file = "./archive_results.txt";

find sub {
  return unless -f;
  $access{$File::Find::dir}{-A _ > 180 ? 'old' : 'new'}++;
}, @top_dirs;

my @results;
for (sort keys %access) {
  $access{$_}{old} ||= 0;               # defaults to avoid warnings
  $access{$_}{new} ||= 0;
  if ($access{$_}{old} > $access{$_}{new}) {
        push @results, "$_";            # keep results rather than pri
+nting
  }
}                                       # Dump all to file.

open RESULTS, "> $results_file"
                or die "Failed to open $results_file for writing: $!\n
+";
print RESULTS join("\n", @results), "\n";
close RESULTS;

    [download]

    Update: Added $! to open statement and extra newline.

[reply]
[d/l]
      open RESULTS, "> $results_file"
                or die "Failed to open $results_file for writing\n";
print RESULTS join("\n", @results);
close RESULTS;

      [download]
      That's missing the final newline (a common mistake). Perhaps you wanted: 
      open RESULTS, ">$results_file" or die;
print RESULTS "$_\n" for @results;
close RESULTS;

      [download]
      And as for: 
        $access{$_}{old} ||= 0;               # defaults to avoid warnings
  $access{$_}{new} ||= 0;
  if ($access{$_}{old} > $access{$_}{new}) {
        push @results, "$_";            # keep results rather than pri
+nting
  }

      [download]
      I'd recast that as: 
        if (($access{$_}{old} || 0) > ($access{$_}{new} || 0)) {
        push @results, "$_";            # keep results rather than pri
+nting
  }

      [download]
      mostly because I hate changing values when all I'm really trying to do is test them. One of the many reasons why I'm not religious about enabling -w.

      -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom