checking if file is empty or not

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

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Re: checking if file is empty or not by tilly (Archbishop) on Aug 07, 2000 at 11:04 UTC
`if (-s $filename) { # The file is not empty }` [download] For more handy file-tests type `perldoc perlfunc` and search for "test". (For most people that means type "/test" and hit return.)	[reply] [d/l]
Re: checking if file is empty or not by ColtsFoot (Chaplain) on Aug 07, 2000 at 11:16 UTC
You can use stat 'Filemane' this returns a 13 element list giving the statistics for the file "Filename" so `@res = stat "file_to_stat"; print qq($res[7]\n);` [download] will return the size of the file in bytes, the other elements of the list are as follows `dev - Device number ino - Inode number mode - File node (type and permissions) nlink - No of hard links uid - File owner gid - Group Id rdev - Device identifier size - size in bytes atime - access time mtime - modified time ctime - Inode change time blksize - Prefered block size blocks - actual number of blocks allocated` [download] Note: Not all fields are supported bt all OSs. Hope this is of help	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: checking if file is empty or not by lolindrath (Scribe) on Aug 07, 2000 at 16:03 UTC
hmm, this works but is probably inefficient. `open FILE, "Filename" \|\| die; @file = <FILE>; close FILE; $file = join( "", @file); if ( $file ne "" ) { #there's something there! }` [download] Just thought I'd pose another solution --=Lolindrath=--	[reply] [d/l]
Re: (Buzzcutbuddha: Don't Reinvent The Wheel!): Re: checking if file is empty or not by buzzcutbuddha (Chaplain) on Aug 07, 2000 at 18:57 UTC
There are file operators out there that will test the size and/or if it's an empty file already created, and there is no need to create a new way to do it. It's good to know that you are thinking, and I am happy that you are willing to participate, but there is a reason why laziness is a virtue. :) Cheers!	[reply]