the script is supposed to be run in a cron job to check the directory one step above itself

In fact, it checks the directory one step above the current directory of the cron process. If you need the script to start running in a specific directory, then put a 'chdir("/pathname")' at the beginning of the script.

Alternatively, just open the directory you want to open: opendir("/pathname")

Or, more simply, don't open it at all - use Perl's glob operator in your loop:

foreach my $file (</pathname/*>) {
    if( ($file ne "index.html") && ($file ne ".")
    && ($file ne "..") && ($file ne "cgi-bin") ) {$files = 1}
}
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Also, you might as well break out of the loop once you've set $files to 1 - it's never going to change on subsequent iterations. In fact, you don't really need a loop at all. Try this:

  my @files = grep(!/^(\.\.?|index\.html|cgi-bin)$/, </pathname/*>);
  if(@files) {
    # send email
  }
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forea­ch my $file (</pa­thnam­e/*>) {

Yuck. Using glob is an excellent idea (I've never seen the utility in opendir()), but for the sake of sanity use the function form instead:

foreach my $file (glob("/pathname/*")) {

=cut
--Brent Dax
There is no sig.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
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In addition: your code isn't very Perlish. I'll try to Perlify it a bit, mainly by using grep(). Plus, you're only looking for files, not directories, are you? The test can be simplified, that way.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use FindBin;
chdir("$FindBin::Bin/..");
opendir(DIR, '.');
@dir = readdir(DIR);
closedir(DIR);

if(my @new = grep {-f and $_ ne "index.html"} @dir) {
    # send mail...
    # ...
    print "New files:\n";
    print " * $_\n" foreach @new;
}
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I don't know where the semicolons should be in the 'foreach' block. This is my attempt at 'clear' formatting and placing semicolons correctly.

foreach $i (0..$#dir) {
    if(
        ($dir[$i] ne "index.html")
    && 
        ($dir[$i] ne ".")
    && 
        ($dir[$i] ne "..") 
    && 
        ($dir[$i] ne "cgi-bin") 
    ) 
    {$files = 1};
}
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no, the syntax of the script is fine, i ran it through the perl interpreter with the -c flag, the problem has to be something acceptable syntax-wise but bad enough to make the program malfunction.

its a very very STUPID STUPID STUPID feeling to say the code works fine. Andy

Yup. After I posted that node, I started playing with all of the provided code, looking at the control blocks, trying to find some error. Then I ran it (using -c to check for errors) and found no problems. {shrug} On to the next node.