Re: Empty perl *.bs files

They are bootstrap files for DynaLoader:

bootstrap()

(...)
It performs the following actions:

(...)

executes an auto/$module/$module.bs file if it exists (typically used to add to @dl_resolve_using any files which are required to load the module on the current platform)

You can safely get rid of them when they're empty. Also see here.

Comment on Re: Empty perl *.bs files

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Re^2: Empty perl *.bs files by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Dec 08, 2008 at 15:24 UTC
Aaah! So that's what `bs` stands for! I gotta say, given that They are always() empty. I just grepped my very mature 5.8.6 perl subtree and found 935 .bs files which are all* empty: `1 File(s) 0 bytes 1 File(s) 0 bytes 1 File(s) 0 bytes 935 File(s) 0 bytes 0 Dir(s) 14,929,285,120 bytes free C:\test>dir /s \perl\*.bs \| find "bytes" \| wc -l 937` [download] That there is an entire subtree 2, 3 even 4 levels deep that exists only to support the existance of this empty file (and sometimes and equally useless empty `.exists` file!). That was not the definition of BS I've had in mind for the last few years. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. "Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Empty perl *.bs files by ikegami (Patriarch) on Dec 08, 2008 at 17:12 UTC
That was not the definition of BS I've had in mind for the last few years. That whole directory tree is just full of BS...	[reply]
Re^2: Empty perl *.bs files by amigo (Initiate) on Dec 11, 2008 at 08:35 UTC
Thank you all for your answers. I didn't receive a notification that there had been answers to my thread. FYI, I am running perl-5.8.8 on Linux which I have compiled myself with normal options selected. I noticed quite a few of these empty files and while disk space is cheap, knowledge is not. I'm just a stickler for not including useless crap in program packages, so I needed to know if these files were needed at runtime. Thanks to all for your help.	[reply]