in reply to return hash table

Re-read the docs for File::Find. The return value of wanted is discarded. It's definitely not returned by find.

Replace 

my %fileInfo = find(...);

sub wanted {
   ...
   $fileInfo{$fileName} = $fileName;
   return %fileInfo;
}

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with 

my %fileInfo;

find(...);

sub wanted {
   ...
   $fileInfo{$fileName} = $fileName;
}

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Actually, I'm not sure why you are using a hash. 

my @fileNames;

find(...);

sub wanted {
   ...
   push @fileNames, $fileName;
}

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By the way, please use <c>...</c> tags around code posted to PerlMonks.

Update: Original post (follows behind readmore) was junk. I latched onto the wrong problem.

Your code boils down to 

my %fileInfo = func();

sub func {
   ...put stuff in %fileInfo...
   return %fileInfo;
}

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You are setting and assigning to the same variable. That makes no sense. (Specifically, the problem is due to the run-time effect vs compile-time effect of my, but fix the other and this goes away.) Fix: 

my %fileInfo = func();

sub func {
   my %fileInfo;      # Work with a local variable.
   ...put stuff in %fileInfo...
   return %fileInfo;  # Return the local variable.
}

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or 

my %fileInfo;

func();

sub func {
   # Work with a global variable.
   ...put stuff in %fileInfo...
}

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In this case, I'm not sure which one you need since I don't know what find returns or what find expects of wanted.

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom