Re: RE: Is this system call hazardous for my computers health??

I agree with you trusting built-in functions more than system calls. I was trying to stay away from modules, and understand how to best use system calls without compromising security.

On a side note, I find it interesting that perl has built in functions to chdir, rmdir, mkdir, rename, and symlink but does not have functions to move, copy, or erase files.

So it seems the best solution would be to use a module that properly handles removing files or directories such as your suggestion of File::Path. However, if not using modules the next best would be to use system to rm the directory and files and then recreate the directory such as this code.

Thanks!
zzspectrez

Comment on Re: RE: Is this system call hazardous for my computers health??

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move, copy, or delete files (RE: Is this system call hazardous for my computers health??) by tye (Sage) on Nov 17, 2000 at 05:31 UTC
You move files with link()/unlink() or [unless you have a really old version of Perl] rename(). You delete files with unlink(). None of them work across file systems. The first two have been a basic part of Unix for a long time and rename() is a recent addition. Same for Perl [because Perl is based on Unix]. Unix and C don't have a standard subroutine for copying files and so Perl doesn't either [nor for moving a file across file systems which is just a copy and delete]. There are modules for this. - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")	[reply]

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move, copy, or delete files (RE: Is this system call hazardous for my computers health??)
by tye (Sage) on Nov 17, 2000 at 05:31 UTC

You move files with link()/unlink() or [unless you have a really old version of Perl] rename(). You delete files with unlink(). None of them work across file systems. The first two have been a basic part of Unix for a long time and rename() is a recent addition. Same for Perl [because Perl is based on Unix].

Unix and C don't have a standard subroutine for copying files and so Perl doesn't either [nor for moving a file across file systems which is just a copy and delete]. There are modules for this.

tye

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