in reply to RE: RE: lock files vs. non-predictable file names
in thread lock files vs. non-predictable file names

So, what you are trying to say is that perl stores the value that stat returns as a binary, but when I printed it out perl converted it to decimal. OK I think I got that now, but this other bit of code you left, I'm not sure I fully understand. Is that leading character a zero in 040700 and if so what does it do? presumably it causes an octal comparison? I guess where I got the code I came up with was by 
 
mkdir($private_dir, 0700);
$mode = (stat($private_dir))[2];
print "stat[2] returned $mode for a value\n"

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the value returned was 16832 which clearly wasn't an octal value. Could you explain to me a little bit about arbitrary base comparisons? I can't find any examples that I recognise. Also thank you for the bit o' wisdom on mailx, I didn't know it had that vunerability(sp).

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RE: RE: RE: RE: lock files vs. non-predictable file names
by merlyn (Sage) on Aug 28, 2000 at 22:11 UTC
    Perl stores the value as a "number". This could be binary, or hex, or bcd, or whatever. Interpolation of that value causes it to be rendered in decimal, yes, and that's why you don't recognize it, because you aren't RainMan and can't convert from decimal to "bits" in your head. {grin}

    The leading 0 in 040700 tells Perl to accept this number in octal (again, easier to encode bits as a human that way), but once accepted, it's again a "number", and can be compared with other "numbers".

    -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

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