copy($localfile, $installfile)
   or die "$localfile unable to copy to $installfile : $!\n";
[download]

That said, demerphq helped me track down the problem. The problematic files where read-only, and apparently File::Copy won't let you copy over read-only files (even if you are the Administrator). I modified the code to add lines like this:

fixreadonly($plugindir) if $^O =~ /win32/i;

sub fixreadonly {
  my $dir = shift;
  my $unsetreadonly = Bio::Root::IO->catfile( $dir, "*.*");
  system("attrib -r /s $unsetreadonly");
}
[download]

Scott
Project coordinator of the Generic Model Organism Database Project

You can change the attribute using chmod, built into Perl, instead of calling out to system. I tried it using the UNIX bits meanings, and it did indeed turn off the R flag on Windows NT.

That works the same on both platforms, so you don't even have to make it conditional.

John,

I did as you suggested and it works well. The readdir/while loop in the code above now looks like this:

opendir PLUGINS, "conf/plugins" or die "unable to opendir ./conf/plugi
+ns\n";
while (my $pluginfile = readdir(PLUGINS) ) {
    my $localfile = Bio::Root::IO->catfile('conf/plugins',$pluginfile)
+;
    if (-f $localfile) {
        my $installfile = Bio::Root::IO->catfile($plugindir, $pluginfi
+le);
        chmod (0666, $installfile);
        copy($localfile, $installfile)
            or die "$localfile unable to copy to $installfile : $!\n";
        chmod (0444, $installfile);
    }
}
closedir PLUGINS;
[download]

The only caveat being that I had to chmod the files to 444 (readonly by everyone, including the owner (root in this case)). It is fine for Windows, but an annoyance on unix. I would have preferred 644 (writeable by the owner), but on Windows, that is the same as world writeable (from Perl's chmod perspective).

(I hate having to type :w and then :w! when I am reminded once again that the file is readonly.)

Thanks,


Scott
Project coordinator of the Generic Model Organism Database Project