output of Find::File into an array

Limbic~Region has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Background: I am trying to write a program for system administration that doesn't require code to be modified every time someone wants to add something new to it. Instead, the program reads a config file where people can just add "checks". One problem I have run into, is getting the output of File::Find into an array. One solution I have thought of is changing STDOUT to a file and then reading the file back in, but that seems like the wrong way. Any ideas would be appreciated.

EXAMPLE
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use File::Find;
use Config::IniFiles;
use strict;
my $cfg = new Config::IniFiles( -file => "config.ini" );
my $start = $cfg->val('FIND', 'start');
my $wanted = $cfg->val('FIND', 'wanted');
my @filesfound = File::Find::find( sub {eval $wanted} , "$start" );
foreach my $file (@filesfound) {
 print "$file is in the $start directory\n";
}

contents of config.ini
[FIND]
start = /tmp
wanted = print("$File::Find::name\n");
[download]

Now of course the foreach never gets run because what I am getting is the exit status of the File::Find and not its output.

Comment on output of Find::File into an array Download Code

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Re: output of Find::File into an array by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Aug 25, 2002 at 01:33 UTC
I'm going to assume that the real code runs in taint mode, checking that config.ini contains no mischievious pranks. ( That is the case, right?...). File::Find doesn't work the way you seem to think. It does not return anything but a status. Here's how I'd populate `@filesfound`: `my @filesfound; find( sub {eval( "$wanted") and push @filesfound, $File::Find::name }, "$start" );` [download] After Compline, Zaxo	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: output of Find::File into an array by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Aug 25, 2002 at 01:56 UTC
Thanks - this is what I was trying to accomplish and the way I was trying to accomplish it. I just couldn't seem to see past my nose!	[reply]
Re: output of Find::File into an array by blakem (Monsignor) on Aug 25, 2002 at 02:27 UTC
Take a look at File::Find::Rule. It has an interface that might work well for you. From the docs: `# find all the .pm files in @INC my @files = File::Find::Rule->file() ->name( '*.pm' ) ->in( @INC );` [download] -Blake	[reply] [d/l]
Re: output of Find::File into an array by mkmcconn (Chaplain) on Aug 25, 2002 at 01:43 UTC
You can push into @filesfound within find's code block. I suspect that you'll find considerable help from mirod's post, here: Why I hate File::Find and how I (hope I) fixed it. mkmcconn	[reply]
Re: Re: output of Find::File into an array by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Aug 25, 2002 at 02:02 UTC
Thanks mkmcconn, but the users that are going to be adding things to the config file aren't going to know how/what/why to push information to the array since it is in the code that shouldn't need to be modified. Zaxo came up with a viable solution that I am going to use. I did realize that what I was trying to do was the equivalent of expecting to see "foo bar" as a result to: `my $var = print "foo bar"; print "$var\n"` [download]	[reply] [d/l]