using unlink to delete files

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello,
I am using unlink to delete empty files, but it is not working in my script.
I would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

my $maid_dir = "C:/Documents and Settings/mydir/Desktop/current/rm_fil
+es";

opendir my $dh, "$maid_dir"; # directory to search
    my @files = readdir $dh;                
    foreach my $f (@files){        
        my $size = -s $f;
        print $size, "\n";
        print Dumper($f);
        if($size < 1 ){
               unlink("$size");
        }
    }
[download]

Any help will be appreciated.

Comment on using unlink to delete files Download Code

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Re: using unlink to delete files by davorg (Chancellor) on Jun 22, 2009 at 22:06 UTC
If `unlink` fails then `$!` will be set. You could try printing the value in there. You are in the wrong directory. You need to either `chdir $maid_dir` or prepend `$maid_dir` to the files that you are trying to delete. You appear to be trying to delete `$size` rather than `$f`. There is no need to quote the variable in your call to `unlink`. -- See the Copyright notice on my home node. Perl training courses	[reply]
Re: using unlink to delete files by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Jun 22, 2009 at 23:18 UTC
AnonMonk above was pointing you in the right way. You seem to be trying to remove the stat'ed sizes, not the actual files. Plus `readdir` doesn't keep the file paths so even if you were doing unlink($f), it would fail unless you were in the right place. Look around in here for sample code for `readdir` if you get stuck.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: using unlink to delete files by Anonymous Monk on Jun 22, 2009 at 22:43 UTC
use autodie `perl -Mautodie -e "unlink(2)" Can't unlink('2'): No such file or directory at -e line 1` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: using unlink to delete files by moritz (Cardinal) on Jun 22, 2009 at 21:21 UTC
Update: I misread the question, sorry for the noise; please ignore ~~Read the documentation, it actually helps:~~ Note: "unlink" will not attempt to delete directories unless you are superuser and the -U flag is supplied to Perl. Even if these conditions are met, be warned that unlinking a directory can inflict damage on your filesystem. Finally, using "unlink" on directories is not supported on many operating systems. Use "rmdir" instead. ~~Do you have any suggestions on how that could have been formulated more clearly, or at a more appropriate place in the documentation?~~	[reply]
Re: using unlink to delete files by scorpio17 (Canon) on Jun 23, 2009 at 13:51 UTC
I think you what to do this: `for my $f (@files) { if (-z "$maid_dir/$f") { unlink("$maid_dir/$f"); } }` [download] Note that the -z file test returns true for zero-size files, and readdir gives you filename, but not the full path.	[reply] [d/l]