How about adding or die "Unable to rename $number.gif to $numbers_replace.GIF: $!" to your last line so we can find out why it's failing?

Once you know what the problem is, you can address that.

the error print unable to find file. the file does exist with correct file permission

That rather backs up Fletch's theory. You need to put the directory name back onto the filenames before trying to rename them.

--
<http://dave.org.uk>

"The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
-- Chip Salzenberg

OK, now we're getting somewhere. Is it unable to find the source file, the first file? I expect that's the case, since you're trying to create the destination file.

Are you checking that the file exists as the same user? That is, are you running the script from a prompt or is it a CGI or something run from cron?

The reason I'm asking is that the script is not able to see the file, while you are. The script isn't lying -- it really can't see the file. If you can see the file, then you must be looking at a different system or running with different privileges.

Alex / talexb / Toronto

"Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds

$dir = "/temp_gif";
opendir(DH, $dir) or die $!;
foreach (readdir DH) {
   next if /^\.?\.$/;
   ($number, $gif) = split /\./;
   print "$number\n";
   $numbers_replace = int($number) + 338;
   rename("$dir/$_", "$dir/$numbers_replace.GIF") or warn $!;
}
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use File::Find;

find(\&wanted, '/temp_gif');

sub wanted {
   return unless /^\d+\.gif$/i;

   (my $new_name = $File::Find::name) 
      =~ s/(\d+)\.gif$/($1+398) . 'GIF'/ei;  

   rename($File::Find::name, $new_name) or die $!;
}
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rename("$number.gif","$numbers_replace.GIF")

Note the quotes. Does that do it?

Sean

Probably not since, aside from not checking the return status from rename, the pathnames still aren't being adjusted relative to the base directory they passed opendir.

--
We're looking for people in ATL

The proof of this (probably accurate) issue could also be being hidden if '/temp_gif' is not a valid mountpoint -- it seems rather plausible, though not yet proven, that './temp_gif' is what was wanted.

One world, one people

i also tried that with no success

(1) split has no default second argument, so the $_ needs to be explicit.

(1) at the least under unix, you could get an error trying to rename . and .. (the current and parent directories). To avoid that, replace the readdir with

grep !/^\./, readdir
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grep /^\d+\.gif/, readdir
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(3) the '.' operator in the arguments to rename will not produce a literal '.' as has already been hinted at.

Update:

(4) it is possible but suspicious that you expect to have a mount point at '/temp_gif' ... should this not be './temp_gif'?

(5) if so, then when that is corrected, the fix suggested by others of putting the relative or full path in front of the arguments to rename will become able to function.

(1) split has no default second argument, so the $_ needs to be explicit.

Erm . . .

       split /PATTERN/,EXPR,LIMIT

       split /PATTERN/,EXPR

       split /PATTERN/

       split   Splits a string into a list of strings and returns
                [ . . . ]
                                                                      
+          
                If EXPR is omitted, splits the $_ string.
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--
We're looking for people in ATL

% rename 's/(\d)\.gif/$1+398 . ".GIF"/e' *.gif
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