Ignoring a Directory with File::Find

dru145 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Fellow Monks,

I'm using File::Find to search for certain files on a system. I need to skip over a certain directory. I'm not having much luck trying to do this. Ideally, I would like to say something like next if /$string/, but I know that I read somewhere that you can't use next when not in a loop. Is there someway else I should do this? I would appreciate any help.

use File::Find; 
use strict;
use warnings
my @exts = qw(.html .jpg);
my $search_root = 'C:\\temp\\';

# Build a Regex

my $rexstr=join'|',map {quotemeta $_} @exts; 
my $rex=qr/(?:$rexstr)$/i;

# Directory to ignore
my $dir = qr/pics/

find({ wanted =>sub{print "Found a match: $_\n" if (/$rex/);} , 
   no_chdir => 1 }, $search_root);
[download]

Thanks,
Dru
Another satisfied monk.

Comment on Ignoring a Directory with File::Find Select or Download Code

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Re: Ignoring a Directory with File::Find by fruiture (Curate) on Nov 12, 2002 at 20:13 UTC
Specify a 'preprocess' routine and filter the directories: `find( { wanted => sub { ... }, no_chdir => 1, preprocess => sub { grep not m/$dir/ => @_ }, }, $search_root );` [download] -- http://fruiture.de	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Ignoring a Directory with File::Find by dru145 (Friar) on Nov 12, 2002 at 21:37 UTC
fruiture, Thanks for the reply (as well as everyone else). I tried your code in my script as such: `# Build a Regex my $rexstr=join'\|',map {quotemeta $_} @exts; my $rex=qr/(?:$rexstr)$/i; # Directory to Ignore my $dir = qr/pics/i; my @list; # Find the files find({ wanted =>sub{ print "Found a match: $_\n" if /$rex/; push @list,$_ if /$rex/} , no_chdir => 1, preprocess => sub { grep not /$dir/ => @_ }, }, $search_root );` [download] but I'm getting the error: `Not enough arguments for grep at test.pl.txt line 30, near "@_ }" Execution of test.pl.txt aborted due to compilation errors.` [download] I think my syntax is correct. I did end up taking John M. Dlugosz and FamousLongAgo suggestion and use a blank return statement instead and I got it to do what I want. I'm still curious about this preprocess function though. I could not find any mention to it in the `File::Find` docs. nor in perlsub Where can I read more on this function? Also, I went back and read my node and in my text, and `next if $string`, should have read `next if $dir`. Hope that didn't confuse anyone. Thanks, Dru Another satisfied monk.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Ignoring a Directory with File::Find by John M. Dlugosz (Monsignor) on Nov 12, 2002 at 20:24 UTC
I think what you are trying to do is a `return` from the callback function. That is, insert `return if /$dir/;` before the `print`. —John	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Ignoring a Directory with File::Find by FamousLongAgo (Friar) on Nov 12, 2002 at 20:25 UTC
Instead of `next`, you can use a bare `return`: `find ( { wanted => sub { return if /$string/; ...` [download] Something to keep in mind, although fruiture shows a cleaner way to do what you want.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: Ignoring a Directory with File::Find by princepawn (Parson) on Nov 12, 2002 at 20:31 UTC
unless you are using InterwovenPerl and thus are stuck 5.005. Carter's compass: I know I'm on the right track when by deleting something, I'm adding functionality	[reply]
Re: Ignoring a Directory with File::Find by Monky Python (Scribe) on Nov 13, 2002 at 08:54 UTC
that code works for me! `find({ wanted =>sub{ if (! ($File::Find::dir =~ /$dir/)) { print "Found a match: $_\n" if (/$rex/);}} , no_chdir => 1 }, $search_root);` [download] I'm using $File::Find::dir to get the actual directory name. If it matches the $dir regex the directory is ignored.	[reply] [d/l]