You can subscribe to Win32 ChangeNotify messages, which would let you know when a file changed for whatever reason. I'm not sure if this helps in your situation, but it is kinda cool. If you don't have Win32::ChangeNotify installed, you can get it via PPM if you run ActiveState ala "ppm install Win32-ChangeNotify" or from CPAN using "perl -MCPAN -e 'install Win32::ChangeNotify'". Here's some sample code: 
use strict;
my $logfile = "D:\\ChangeNotify.txt";
my $path = "D:\\";

use Win32::ChangeNotify;
ChangeWatch();

sub ChangeWatch {
  #$filter can contain any of the below seperated by a | 
  #
  #ATTRIBUTES   Any attribute change
  #DIR_NAME     Any directory name change
  #FILE_NAME    Any file name change 
  #LAST_WRITE   Any change to a file's last write time
  #SECURITY     Any security descriptor change
  #SIZE         Any change in a file's size

  my $filter = LAST_WRITE;
  my ($path,$subtree);
  my $notify = Win32::ChangeNotify->new($path,$subtree,$filter);
  $notify->wait or warn "Something failed: $!\n";
  Notify($path,$subtree);
  $notify->reset;
  ChangeWatch();
}

sub Notify {
  my ($path,$subtree)=@_;
  open(FILE,">>$logfile) or die "could not optn $logfile: $!";
  print FILE scalar localtime . "Change Detected at $path $subtree\n";
  close FILE;
}

[download]
-Vlad

In reply to Re: Making a perl program look like a regular file on Win32? by vladdrak
in thread Making a perl program look like a regular file on Win32? by SmugX

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