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

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.

by stating the file location i have a new error "Argument "" isn't numeric in addition (+)". with relation to the $number_replace variable? i am running the script from a command line the directory and files are now chmod 777 (wromg i know) and the script is chmod a+x

Then it looks like you're doing things in the wrong order. It should be something like this:

my $dir = '/temp_gif';
opendir (DH, $dir) or die "unable $!";

foreach (readdir DH) {
  my ($number) = split (/\./);
  print "$number\n";
  $number += 338;

  rename ("$dir/$_", "$dir/$number.GIF") or die $!;
}
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--
<http://dave.org.uk>

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

by stating the file location i have a new error "Argument "" isn't numeric in addition (+)". with relation to the $number_replace variable?

Probably because the file name that's come up is no longer a numeric -- it's x.gif or something.

You're probably better off using a regexp to skip files that don't have numeric 'name'.

Alex / talexb / Toronto

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