Since there doesn't appear to be a good solution to this one yet, how about a bad one ;-)

Your script could record the sizes (etc.) of all the files in the upload directory some time before the half hour mark, then go to sleep. When the time comes for doing the copying, the script only works on the files whose sizes are unchanged from the previous snapshot. I'm guessing that 5 minutes ought to do, but if your senders are as iffy as you say, maybe you want to take several snapshots.

One other idea that you probably considered and discarded, but placed here just in case: If there is any consistency to the file structure, can you detect whether they are complete by the content in any way? I'd like to suggest you get the submitters to put a standard end line of some kind but it sounds like that won't fly.


In reply to Re: FTP and File Copying by Albannach
in thread FTP and File Copying by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.