Move multiple files?

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

Hi people,

I have a CGI script that uploads files, performs a bundle of checks upon then and then if they are valid I want to move all files in that directory into a processing directory where a cron job operates on them once a day

(I have uploaded a bundle of files in a tar file and unziped them using Archive::Tar into this directory)

The uploaded files look like..


[277] mf139823@esweb: pwd
/apps/webroot/service/servicelist-automation/sl-submission/submitted-f
+iles/2002-10-28-11-42-09-ss-mrf2
[278] mf139823@esweb: ls -l
total 66
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody     17408 Oct 28 11:42 siteresse-sg-eng
+.tar
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      7361 Oct 22 09:49 siteressse-sg-en
+g-20020510.sxw
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      7357 Oct 22 09:49 siteressse-sg-en
+g-20020918.sxw
[download]

...now the code I have to move them looks like this...

sub moveTarFilesToProcessDir{    
#    $fileFrom = "$curSubmitDir/siteressse-sg-eng-20020918.sxw";
    $fileFrom = "$curSubmitDir/*";
    $fileTo = "$thisFilesDir/new-files/$user_LOB/";
    print $cgi->p("Moving files from <h4>($fileFrom)</h4> to <h4>($fil
+eTo)</h4>");
    move($fileFrom, $fileTo)
        or die "($!)";
}
[download]

... you'll noitice that one line is commented out. If I use this line instead of the line under it as the $fileFrom variable it will move just that file to the correct place(thats one of the files I'm testing it with)

But I want to move all files in this directory. So why does $fileFrom = "$curSubmitDir/*"; not work? How can I move all of the files in this directory.

At the moment I get the error..

(No such file or directory)
[download]

... when I try to use $curSubmitDir/*

Is this a stupid mistake that has kept me puzzled for a the last 3hours or is it not possible with File::Copy?

Thanks everyone,

Comment on Move multiple files? Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Move multiple files? by nothingmuch (Priest) on Oct 28, 2002 at 19:17 UTC
Since no shell interpolation is performed on the filename, the filesystem is queried for an actual file called ''. You may be interested in peerforming a chdir`($curSubmitDir); @filesFrom = glob("");`, which will use the shell to get the list of files, and store them in an array. Then you have to copy the files one by one: `foreach my $fileFrom (@filesFrom){ move ($fileFrom, $fileTo) or die "$!"; }` [download] You may also use a different approach - which is a bit more efficient, and secure: `opendir SUBM, $curSubmitDir; while (defined (my $fileFrom = readdir DIR)){ move ($fileFrom, $fileTo) or die "$!"; }` [download] Which will open the directory, and read it item by item, instead of performing a glob. This will also avoid an array in memory, and will not change your working directory. -nuffin zz zZ Z Z #!perl	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: Move multiple files? by kelan (Deacon) on Oct 28, 2002 at 21:48 UTC
Another benefit of the second approach is that it will also copy files with leading dots, which globbing will not do. kelan Perl6 Grammar Student	[reply]
Re: Move multiple files? by Kanji (Parson) on Oct 28, 2002 at 19:17 UTC
It doesn't look like File::Copy supports globing, so you'll have to handle that part of it yourself and iterate over the results... `foreach my $file ( glob($fileFrom) ) { move($file, $fileTo); )` [download] --k.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Move multiple files? by joe++ (Friar) on Oct 28, 2002 at 19:14 UTC
Try `perldoc -f glob`, or, better yet, `perldoc File::Glob` if you're using Perl 5.6.x or newer. -- Cheers, Joe	[reply] [d/l] [select]