As some-one who has had NO formal programming training, I face this issue often. I have just written some code and tested it successfully. I manage to get perl to do what I need it to. What ALWAYS concerns me though, is that I am never confident in whether or not my code is "Best Practice" (for lack of a better expression). I mean are there better ways of doing certain things...? So here is what I have and would like comment on/correction for.

This code reads in the XML file 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- This is XML for the X-CallLogger -->
<md_map>
    <md name="SRVONE">
        <Sys>ARS</Sys>
        <Server>HDSrv</Server>
        <Schema>Sch1</Schema>
        <User>Demo</User>
        <Pass></Pass>
        <Update_Core>Y</Update_Core>
    </md>
    <md name="SRVTWO">
        <Sys>ARS</Sys>
        <Server>HDSrv</Server>
        <Schema>Sch2</Schema>
        <User>Demo</User>
        <Pass></Pass>
        <Update_Core>Y</Update_Core>
    </md>
    <md name="SRVTHREE">
        <Sys>ARS</Sys>
        <Server>HDSrv</Server>
        <Schema>Sch1</Schema>
        <User>Demo</User>
        <Pass>pass</Pass>
        <Update_Core>N</Update_Core>
    </md>
</md_map>

[download]
It checks for each name attribute and then checks if a corresponding dir exists in the specified path. If a dir is not there is creates it. 
#! /usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use XML::Simple;

my ($mdlist, @mds, @dirs, $key, $callout_loc);
$callout_loc = ".";

my $file = "./mdlist.xml";
my $xs1 = XML::Simple->new();

eval { $mdlist = $xs1->XMLin($file, forcearray => 1, keyattr => 'name'
+) };
if ($@) {
    print "Problems with Loading XML - $@\n";
    exit();
}

&Get_MDs();

&Get_Dirs();

#Check if Dir created else create it.
map { &checkdir } @mds;

######################################################################
+##################
##
##        SUB ROUTINES
##
######################################################################
+##################

#Get List of MDs
sub Get_MDs
{
    foreach $key (keys (%{$mdlist->{md}})) {
        push(@mds, $mdlist->{md}->{$key}->{'name'} . $key);
    }
}

#Get list of dirs
sub Get_Dirs
{
    if ( opendir( MDDIR, "$callout_loc" ) ) {
        while( my $dir = readdir( MDDIR ) ) {
            next if( ( "." eq $dir ) || ( ".." eq $dir ) );
            push( @dirs, $dir ) if( -d "$callout_loc/$dir" );
        }
        closedir( MDDIR );
    } else {
        #Could not OPEN Dir
        print "Could not open $callout_loc to check for MD Directories
+: $!\n";
        exit (0);
    }
}

#Check if Dir Exists else Create.
sub checkdir
{
    print "Checking DIR for $_ ... ";

    undef my %dir_exists;
        for (@dirs) { $dir_exists{$_} = 1 }
        
    if (!$dir_exists{$_}) {
        print "Creating.\n";
        mkdir ($_);
    } else {
        print " Exists\n";
    }
}

[download]

So Basically I have two questions:

Oh and File::Find was not used as I just could not get my mind around diretory depth issues...

-----
Of all the things I've lost in my life, its my mind I miss the most.

In reply to Read XML, Create Dir if not exist by AcidHawk

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