I have to admit -- I've never tried this particular task before, but I found it most amusing to build. Perhaps it was the danger that if I did it incorrectly I'd end up without my home directory or something like that :-)

However, I'm happy to announce that this code is tested, it does work, and I'll describe what it does so you know what you're getting yourself into :-)

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use File::Path;
use File::Basename;

# This extracts the path of the current directory into
# the variable $dirname
my $dirname = dirname($0);

# The following line (beginning with the word "rmtree") is
# commented for safety purposes.  It WILL delete the
# contents of the directory the script is in, and all it's
# subdirs.  I did test it, but please do not take my word
# for it!  Try it in your temp dir before putting this in
# with your live data.

# Uncommenting this line will cause files to be deleted!
# rmtree([$dirname], 1, 1);

print "This is a drill.  If this were not a drill, the dir '$dirname',
+ and all of it's contents and subdirectories would be toast right now
+.";

[download]
Update: Code has been removed until the original posted states why they want it.. while there are many legitimate reasons for this, there are also plenty of malicious ones.

Update 2: The original poster has posted a very legitimate reason for requiring this functionality. So without further ado, I have re-posted this code. I appologize for the delay, but unfortunatly not everyone is honest these days. Good luck!
-Eric

In reply to Re: Self Deletion by andreychek
in thread Self Deletion by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.