You don't. Directories are read using the FindFirstFile (or FindFirstFileEx), FindClose and FindNextFile Win32 system calls, which are not called anywhere in Win32API::File. Why not use Perl's builtin functions opendir, readdir and closedir to do this? As an alternative, Perl also supplies an OO interface: IO::Dir

Can't use the built in's because I'm trying end run around the fact that they're not Unicode aware. For the program I'm trying to write, I need to be able to move and copy files even if the filenames and directories have characters that readdir can't cope with.

Maybe this will help

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Win32::API::Prototype;

ApiLink( 'Kernel32', 
    q[ HANDLE FindFirstFile( LPCTSTR lpFileName, LPWIN32_FIND_DATA lpF
+FData )] 
) or die $^E;
ApiLink( 'Kernel32', 
    q[ BOOL FindNextFile( HANDLE hFindFile, LPWIN32_FIND_DATA lpFFData
+ ) )] 
) or die $^E;
ApiLink( 'Kernel32', 
    q[ HANDLE FindClose( HANDLE hFindDile )] 
) or die $^E;

=pod
typedef struct _WIN32_FIND_DATA {
  DWORD dwFileAttributes;               # 4
  FILETIME ftCreationTime;              # 8
  FILETIME ftLastAccessTime;            # 8
  FILETIME ftLastWriteTime;             # 8
  DWORD nFileSizeHigh;                  # 4
  DWORD nFileSizeLow;                   # 4
  DWORD dwReserved0;                    # 4
  DWORD dwReserved1;                    # 4
  TCHAR cFileName[MAX_PATH];            # 260
  TCHAR cAlternateFileName[14];         # 14
} WIN32_FIND_DATA,                      # 328
*PWIN32_FIND_DATA;
=cut

my $FFData = chr(0) x 328;

my $hFF = FindFirstFile( '.\*', $FFData ) or die $^E;

do {
    print unpack 'x44Z260', $FFData;
} while FindNextFile( $hFF, $FFData );
FindClose( $hFF );
[download]

---

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

The "good enough" maybe good enough for the now, and perfection maybe unobtainable, but that should not preclude us from striving for perfection, when time, circumstance or desire allow.

Well, you could create a interface to FindFirstFileW or FindFirstFileExW, FindNextFileW and FindClose using Win32::API.

Update: It seems that BrowserUK has already implemented that to which I was refering, except he implemented the non-unicode version of the calls.

So, how does one open and read directories using Win32api::File?

You don't. See perl's built-in functions opendir,readddir,closedir