Greetings Wise Ones,
I've been messing around with this for several hours and it's driving me batty.

I want to get the permissions of files and directories on a linux system and store them in a scalar in binary. e.g. "0755"

I found this: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

$file="/tmp/test.file";

$mode = (stat($file))[2];
printf "Permissions are %04o\n", $mode & 07777;

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This gives me the values I'm looking for: 
Permissions are 0744

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but I don't understand the "printf" function. I've read the perldoc, but I just don't get it. Also, I don't *think* I want it for the script on which I'm working.

I thought briefly about writing the values out to a file, then sucking them back in....but that just seems wrong.
I just want to store those 4 numbers in a scalar.
Can anyone help me?
Thanks!!!

In reply to stat and permissions by Stoomy

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