use strict;
use warnings;
my @dirs = qw ( /root /home /sbin /tmp /lost+found /not-a-dir /etc/pas
+swd );
for (@dirs) {
    if (! -e ) {
        print "$_ => does not exist";
        next;
    }
    if (! -d ) {
        print "$_ => not a directory";
        next;
    }
  (opendir(my $FH, $_)) ?  print "$_ => ok" : print "$_ => denied";
}
__END__
$ perl -l 621211.pl
/root => denied
/home => ok
/sbin => ok
/tmp => ok
/lost+found => denied
/not-a-dir => does not exist
/etc/passwd => not a directory
[download]

Update: Added tests on existence and type.