The documentation to File::Path suggests that the rmtree() function rolls back the result of that same module's mkpath() function.

Similarly, the "rmtree" function provides a convenient way to delete a subtree from the directory structure, much like the Unix command "rm -r". "rmtree" takes three arguments:

o the root of the subtree to delete, or a reference to a list of roots. All of the files and directories below each root, as well as the roots themselves, will be deleted.

As I interpret this documentation -- particularly the reference to the "root" of the subtree -- if I create a directory structure alpha/beta/gamma with mkpath, I should expect to find alpha/ and all subdirectories and files beneath it eliminated by using rmtree(). But that's not what I'm getting. 

use File::Path;
use Test::More qw|no_plan|;
my $tmp = "/Users/jimk/tmp";
chdir $tmp or die;
my $partial = "alpha/beta/gamma";
mkpath($partial);
ok(-d "$tmp/$partial", "$tmp/$partial created");
rmtree($partial);
ok(! -d "$tmp/$partial", "$tmp/$partial deleted");

[download]

Notwithstanding what ok() is reporting, only the lowest level subdirectory, gamma, is being deleted. But what I really wanted to accomplish was deleting alpha/, alpha/beta/, alpha/beta/gamma/. What am I not getting about rmtree?

And while we're talking about File::Path ... is the / following 'mkpath' and preceding 'foo' an error? 

           mkpath(['/foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 0711);
           rmtree(['foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 1);

[download]

Shouldn't it simply be ... 

           mkpath(['foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 0711);
           rmtree(['foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 1);

[download]

Thank you very much.

Jim Keenan

In reply to File::Path::rmtree: What am I not grokking? by jkeenan1

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