Given two filenames (paths), I want to know whether they point to the same file. I don't think File::Spec has a method for that, so I use the following: 
# Return false if either files doesn't exist, or if we
# cannot stat either file.
sub is_same {
    my ($file1, $file2) = @_;
    return unless -f $file1 && -f $file2;
    return unless my ($dev1, $ino1) = (lstat $file1)[0, 1];
    return unless my ($dev2, $ino2) = (lstat $file2)[0, 1];
    return $dev1 == $dev2 && $ino1 == $ino2;
}

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Works like a charm on Unix.

I've no idea how that works under non-Unix systems.

(Note, I'm not trying to see if two paths are identical - File::Spec has methods for that. But files can have more than one name (hard links), or refer to another file (sym links) and I want to know if two, possibly different, paths point to the same file.)

In reply to Testing if two paths point to the same file. by JavaFan

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