Re: Get newest file

If you mean newest as in time of modification, then you can do something like this:

my ($newest) = sort {
     -M $b <=> -M $a
} glob("*");
[download]

Although untested, this is basically how you approach this sort of thing.

Comment on Re: Get newest file Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Get newest file by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Oct 27, 2002 at 21:14 UTC
That will stat all files more than once (remember, sort is Nlog(N)), and will, particularly for large directories, break down horribly in performance. The least you can do here is a Schwartzian Transform or variant thereof. Also remember that globbing for `` will miss any files starting with a dot - if that is of significance. I'd do something like this: `my ($age, $name) = (0, ""); opendir DIR, $directory; while(my $curname = readdir DIR) { my $curage = (stat "$directory/$curname")[9]; next unless -f _; ($name, $age) = ($curname, $curage) if $curage > $age; } closedir DIR;` [download] But that still doesn't address the recursive nature of the original poster's task. Zaxo makes the right points. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply] [d/l]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^2: Get newest file
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Oct 27, 2002 at 21:14 UTC

That will stat all files more than once (remember, sort is N*log(N)), and will, particularly for large directories, break down horribly in performance. The least you can do here is a Schwartzian Transform or variant thereof.

Also remember that globbing for * will miss any files starting with a dot - if that is of significance.

I'd do something like this:

my ($age, $name) = (0, "");
opendir DIR, $directory;
while(my $curname = readdir DIR) {
    my $curage = (stat "$directory/$curname")[9];
    next unless -f _;
    ($name, $age) = ($curname, $curage) if $curage > $age;
}
closedir DIR;
[download]

Zaxo

Makeshifts last the longest.

[reply]
[d/l]