$File::Find::prune = 1;
[download]

You might also want to check if it is indeed a dir in that same if block, instead of just checking the UID.

    if ($uid < 500){
        print "UID is $uid, skipping $File::Find::dir $_\n";
        $File::Find::prune = 1;
        return;
    }
[download]

    if ($uid < 500){
        print "UID is $uid, skipping $File::Find::dir $_\n";
        $File::Find::prune= 1;
        return;
    }
[download]

Or (to beat a favorite dead hobby horse of mine) use other tools to do something simple, like "du -k -s $dir" -- I'll bet this turns out to run faster and use less memory than File::Find.

I tried out the following, and I think it basically does what you're looking for. I didn't benchmark it against using File::Find to get the equivalent result for this case, but in other cases where I have done the benchmarking, File::Find consistently takes at least a few times longer than a solution that doesn't use it.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;

# round up the usual suspects...

chdir "/home";
opendir( H, "." ) or die $!;
my @homers = grep { ( -d and (stat(_))[4] >= 500 ) } readdir H;
closedir H;

# track down their disk usage

open( SH, "| /bin/sh > /tmp/home.scan.$$" ) or die $!;
print SH "du -k -s $_\n" for ( @homers );
close SH;

# read and print the results from worst to nicest

open( U, "/tmp/home.scan.$$" ) or die $!;
my %usage = map { (/(\d+)\s+(\S+)/); $2=>$1 } <U>;
close U;

print "$_ : $usage{$_}\n" for ( sort { $usage{$b} <=> $usage{$a} } key
+s %usage );

# all done

unlink "/tmp/home.scan.$$";
exit(0);
[download]

find(\&offenders, $dir);

sub offenders{

    # recurse directories
    $File::Find::prune = 0;

    # there are some shared directories
    # that we do not want to include

    my @dirs = 
        '\/home\/engineering\/dev\/share';
   
    foreach my $z (@dirs){
        #print "$z eq $File::Find::dir\n";
        return if ($File::Find::dir =~ m/$z/)
    }

    # do not include links
    return if (-l);

    # owner of file but skip
    # if owner is not a user
    # (uid < 500)
    #
    #return if ($uid < 500);
    $uid = (lstat($_))[4];
    if (-d && $uid < 500){ 
        # check do not recurse these
        # dirctories
        $File::Find::prune = 1;
        print "UID is $uid, skipping $File::Find::dir, $File::Find::na
+me, $_\n";
        return; 
    }

    # scan only regular files
    if (-f){
        $uname = getpwuid $uid;

        # gather name of file
        $fname = $File::Find::name;

        # size of file (kb)
        $size = (lstat($_))[7];
        $size = int($size/1000);

        # keep running total of each
        # user's space use
        $size{$uname} += $size;
    }
}
[download]

This skips everything. Here is the output:

UID is 0, skipping /home, /home, .
[download]

I suggest explicitly checking for a directory named '/home' to allow it:

if (-d && $uid < 500 and $File::Find::dir ne '/home'){
[download]


Aside, your status message is redundant:

    print "UID is $uid, skipping $File::Find::dir, $File::Find::name, 
+$_\n";

__END__
UID is 0, skipping /home/zackse, /home/zackse/.kde, .kde
[download]

You can simplify this to:

    print "UID is $uid, skipping $File::Find::name\n";
__END__
UID is 0, skipping /home/zackse/.kde
[download]


Remember that inside the wanted subroutine (offenders in this case), $_ contains the basename,$File::Find::name contains the full path, and $File::Find::dir contains the current directory.

--sacked