I am writing a Perl script that performs various filesystem operations and I am interested in adding a "preview" mode to it. A rough outline of the script would look like: 

  use Filesystem::Preview;
  if ($ARGV[0] eq "--preview") {
    shift;
    enable_filesystem_preview();
  }
  ...
  rename $file_from, $file_to or die "Could not move file: $!\n";
  chmod 0777, $file_to or die "Could not chmod file: $!\n";
  unlink $temp_file or die "Could not delete file: $!\n";

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Now if you invoke script.pl, it performs the file operations; but if you invoke script.pl --preview its output is 

  rename file1.txt -> file2.txt
  chmod 0777 file2.txt
  unlink /tmp/tempfile.dat

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...but no actual changes are made to the filesystem.

I looked on CPAN and did not see such a module. Does anyone know of such a module?

Ideally, it might also cache actions so your script could include code like: 

  use Filesystem::Preview;
  enable_filesystem_preview(CACHE => 1);
  ...
  print_cached_filesystem_actions();
  if (user_confirmation("Perform operations?")) {
    execute_cached_filesystem_actions();
  }
  else {
    die "User confirmation required\n";
  }

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In reply to File operations "preview" mode? by jh

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