Take a look at File::Basename; it provides fileparse(), a function that splits a full specification into three parts: (base-name, path, suffix). But, it doesn't "capture and *expand* the current directory" when fed a '.'. For that, you have to have a special case: 
use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Basename;
use Cwd;

my $file_name = './hello.world';

# Insert your file-name gathering logic here
# Place the results in $file_name.

my ($base_name, $path, $suffix) = fileparse($file_name);
if ($path =~ /\./) {
    $path = cwd();
}

[download]
Note: Written but not run past a Perl interpreter....

----
I Go Back to Sleep, Now.

OGB

In reply to Re: Dissecting a complete pathname to a file by Old_Gray_Bear
in thread Dissecting a complete pathname to a file by Anonymous Monk

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