Hard linking with Perl

astroboy has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I've been using snapback2, a fine Perl utility for performing remote backups using ssh and rsync. However, it relies on gnu "cp" - specifically the "cp -al" flags (archive and create hard links)

Unfortunately, my backup Mac OS X server doesn't recognize these flags. The way I got snapback2 working was to ignore the "make test" failures, continue with the snapback2 install, and then installed the gnu cp - you can specify alternate cp, mv and rm commands in the config file once snapback2 is installed.

It seems to me that a better solution would be to do the "cp -al" in native Perl, but I'm not sure if the hard-linking part is possible. Can it be done?

Comment on Hard linking with Perl

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Hard linking with Perl by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Jul 21, 2005 at 21:19 UTC
perldoc -f link After Compline, Zaxo	[reply]
Re: Hard linking with Perl by friedo (Prior) on Jul 21, 2005 at 21:21 UTC
You can create hard links with the builtin link function. `link( $file, $newfile ) or die $!;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Hard linking with Perl by astroboy (Chaplain) on Jul 21, 2005 at 21:37 UTC
Cheers guys. I take it that this means that in order to replicate "cp -al", I need to traverse the directory tree, and copy it by replicating the directory structure, and hard linking to each file in turn.	[reply]
Re^3: Hard linking with Perl by friedo (Prior) on Jul 21, 2005 at 21:41 UTC
Also check out File::Find ( or File::Finder ), File::Basename, and File::Path. They will aid you in your quest.	[reply]
Re: Hard linking with Perl by fmerges (Chaplain) on Jul 22, 2005 at 00:15 UTC
Hi, Also take a look at Dirvish Regards, \|fire\| at irc.freenode.net I like merlyn's disclaimer	[reply]