# code to open ERRLOG here
eval {
    die "There's no way around this!";
};

if ($@) {
    print ERRLOG "Caught: $@!\n";
}
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As for the directory deletion and warning, your code will always log a successful deletion, even if it fails. Try this:

if (rmdir ($_)) {
    open(LOG, ">>$logfile") or warn "discarding logfile output\n";
    print LOG "Directory: $_ - has been deleted.\n";
    close (LOG) or warn "Can't close: $!";
} else {
    warn "Cannot delete directory: $_ ($!)";
}
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I like it.

Thank you very much. I'll have to ++ you tomorrow.

Thanks,
djw

In addition to what chromatic said, you can do this:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

BEGIN {
 open( ERRORLOG, ">> /tmp/test_error.log" ) || die $!;
}
END {
 close( ERRORLOG );
}

{
 $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { print ERRORLOG 'warn - ' . $_[0] };
 $SIG{__DIE__}  = sub { print ERRORLOG 'die  - ' . $_[0] };
 warn "Hey I told you so with that warning";
 eval { die  "Blah! It's a die command! that goes here" };
 print "dingle dongle goes here\n" 
}
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Output is:

dingle dongle goes here
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And contents of error.log are:

warn - Hey I told you so with that warning at test_sigdie.pl line 15.
die  - Blah! It's a die command! that goes here at test_sigdie.pl line
+ 16.
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Note that die will still die if you don't wrap it in an eval {}. Also, since it's not installed yet the signal handler doesn't catch the die in the BEGIN block, so you don't need to worry about any bad things happening there. And also note that you can re-throw a warn or die from within the signal handler without getting into an infinite loop.

Redirecting error messages like this is really nifty, but once you get into using larger programs you need to be careful about doing this. Other modules might depend on die acting the normal way, so when you start throwing (for instance) hashrefs everywhere instead of plaintext you can run into some trouble. (At least, I thought I ran into trouble doing this, but maybe I just wasn't smart enough to get myself out of it :)

How about something like this? do the logging then die

if (!rmdir $_)
{
  open(LOG, ">>$logfile") or warn "discarding logfile output  \n";
  print LOG "Directory: $_ - had a problem deleting.\n";
  close (LOG) or warn "Can't close: $!";
  die "could not rmdir $_\n";
}
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No I run the script from my desktop. Must be because windows catches the dir as 'in use' and won't unlock it until the script is completed. Which probably saves my entire hard drive from being deleted =)

Thanks,
djw

} else {
    open(ERRLOG, ">>$errorlog") or warn "scrapping error output\n";   
+ 
    eval { die "($!)"; };
        if ($@) { 
            print ERRLOG "Cannot delete dir $_ : $@!\n"; 
        }
    }
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#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;            
use File::stat; 
use File::Find qw(finddepth);

my($create_date, $current_date, $time_month, $month_old);
my($dir,$dirs,$logfile,$logfile2,$errorlog);


$_ = *File::Find::name;
$month_old = 2592000;
$current_date = time;
$dir = 'd:\data\Transfer';

$logfile = 'd:\data\log.txt';        
$logfile2 = 'd:\data\log_keep.txt';    
$errorlog = 'd:\data\errorlog.txt';    

finddepth \&deletion, $dir;


#
# Start of my function 'deletion'
#

sub deletion {
if (-f) {
    $create_date = stat($_)->ctime;
    if ($create_date < ($current_date - $month_old)) {
        if (unlink ($_)) { 

            open(LOG, ">>$logfile") or warn "discarding logfile output
+\n";
            print LOG "FIle: $_ - has been deleted.\n";
            close (LOG) or warn "Can't close $logfile: $!";

        } else {

            open(ERRLOG, ">>$errorlog") or warn "scrapping error outpu
+t\n";
            eval { die "($!)"; };
            if ($@) { print ERRLOG "Cannot delete file $_ : $@!\n"; }
        }

    } else {

        open(LOG, ">>$logfile2") or warn "discarding logfile output\n"
+;
        print LOG "The file $_ is newer than 30 days.\n";
        close(LOG) or warn "Can't close $logfile2: $!";
    }
} else {
    $create_date = stat($_)->ctime;
    if ($create_date < ($current_date - $month_old)) {
        if (rmdir ($_)) {
    
            open(LOG, ">>$logfile") or warn "discarding logfile output
+\n";
            print LOG "Directory: $_ - has been deleted.\n";
            close (LOG) or warn "Can't close $logfile: $!";
    
        } else {

            open(ERRLOG, ">>$errorlog") or warn "scrapping error outpu
+t\n";
            eval { die "($!)"; };
            if ($@) { print ERRLOG "Cannot delete dir $_ : $@!\n"; }

        }            

    } else {

            open(LOG, ">>$logfile2") or warn "discarding logfile outpu
+t\n";
            print LOG "The dir $_ is newer than 30 days.\n";
            close(LOG) or warn "Can't close $logfile2: ($!)";

        }
    }
}
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unlink ($_) or &error(1,"Unable to open file: $_");

sub error
   {
   open the log and print out stuff (including $!)
   if the first variable is 1, exit the script          (die style)
   if the first variable is 0, return to where you were (warn style)
   }
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