### -------------------------------
    ### Read local directory
    opendir LOCALDIR, $location || 
        croak "Unable to open: $location because $!";

    @local_files = readdir LOCALDIR;

    foreach $file (@local_files){

        ### Don't try to delete directories
        if ($file eq '.' || 
            $file eq '..' ||
            -d "$location$file" ) {
           next;
        }

        ### Test the age of each file in the directory and delete
        ### if too old (N.B. need to prepend directory to find file an
+d 
        ### use unlink for OS portable deletion).

        if ( -M "$location$file" <= $age) {
            $p_debug && 
                print "$file is ok, only ", 
                    -M "$location$file", " days old\n";
        } else {
            $p_debug && 
                print "$file is too old, it's ",
                    -M "$location$file", " days old\n";
            unlink("$location$file") || 
                croak "Unable to delete: $location$file because: $!";
        }
    }
[download]

You could use something like:

        ### Move each file into archive directory
        move( "$location$file", "$target$file") || 
        croak "Unable to move: $location$file because: $!";
[download]

Look out! If you're going to use the "|| die" syntax instead of "or die", you need to put parentheses around the arguments to opendir.

opendir (FOO, $bar) || die "No dice";
[download]

and

opendir FOO, $bar or die "No dice";
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are equivalent: they try to open the dirhandle FOO to the directory listed in $bar, and if opendir fails, they die. But

opendir FOO, $bar || die "No dice";
[download]

is equivalent to

opendir FOO, ($bar || die "No dice");
[download]

which means that die is only called if $bar is empty, not if opendir fails. Which is unlikely to be what you intended.




---

If God had meant us to fly, he would *never* have give us the railroads.
    --Michael Flanders

Thanks - well spotted.

$clean_up_code_before_posting || die "red face: $!";

Must remember to clean up before I post (I now use or die)...

#!/usr/bin/perl -w  <--- this does nothing on win 32
use strict;
use warnings;
use diagnostics;
require 5.6.0;

# use / as the path delimiter perl will change it to \ for you
# if you use \ you will regret it as this is the escape char
# thus c:\thisdir is seen by perl as c:[tab]hisdir as \t is tab
my $path = 'c:/logfiles/';
my $file;

print "Processing...\n";

opendir(DIR,$path) or die "Unable to open dir $path: $!\n";
my @everything = readdir DIR;
closedir DIR;

foreach $file(@everything) {
    next if -d "$path$file"; # skip the directories
    next unless $file =~ m/\.log$/i; # look for files that end in .log
    print "Loading $path$file\n";
    # if you get to here you have a logfile so slurp it up
    my @file = &get_file("$path$file",1);
    
    # now have lines of file in @ file so iterate through them
  LINE:    for my $line(@file) {
        # look for whatever you are looking for
        # call the do stuff sub if you find a foobar
        if ($line =~ m/foobar/) {
            &do_stuff(@file);
            last LINE; # exit from this loop on $file
        }
    }
}

print "Done!\n";
exit;

sub do_stuff {

    my @file = @_;
    #do you stuff to $file here (the file is in @file if you want it)
    print "Doing stuff to $path$file\n";
    return;
}



# this sub makes a unique filename by adding numerals to the end of th
+e passed
# path/filename until it finds one that does not exist or dies after 1
+01 tries
# useage:   $my_unique_name = &make_unique_filename($filename);

sub make_unique_filename {

    my $filename = shift;
    no warnings;
    while (-e $filename) {
        $filename =~ s/^(.*?)(\d*)$/$1.eval(($2||0)+1)/e;
      die "Unable to make unique file $filename(0..100) after 101 trie
+s!\n" if $2 > 100;
    }
  return $filename;
}

# this sub inputs the script spceified by $path, and unless the $no_ba
+ckup 
# argument is set to true it writes and verifies a backup
# useage:  @file = &get_file($part,$no_backup);

sub get_file {

    # get arguments
    my $path = shift;
    my $no_backup = shift;

    # get script to process
    open (FILE, "<", "$path") or die "Unable to open file $path $!\n";
    my @file = <FILE>;
    close FILE;

    # we will write a backup unless this has been specifically outlawe
+d
    unless ($no_backup) {
        
        # make a uniquely named backup file
        $backup_file = "$path.bak";
        $backup_file = &make_unique_filename($backup_file) if -e $back
+up_file;
        
        # write script to script.bak before proceeding
        open (FILE, ">", $backup_file) or die "Unable to write backup 
+file $backup_file $!\n";
        for (@file) {
            print FILE $_;
        }
        close FILE;

        # varify backup is a perfect copy, rampant paranoia is OK beca
+use ..it happens
        open (BACKUP, "<", $backup_file) or die "Backup file failure, 
+aborting! $!\n";
        my @backup = <BACKUP>;
        close BACKUP;
        for my $i (0..$#backup) {
            die "Backup file corrupt, aborting!\n" unless $file[$i] eq
+ $backup[$i];
        }
        print "Backup of original script written to $backup_file\n";
    }
  return @file; # if all has proceeded as expected we return the scrip
+t
}
[download]

use FileHandle;

my $directory = 'c:\temp';
my @logfile;
my $handle;
my %number;
my $date;
my $string;

opendir LOGDIR, $directory
    or die "Unable to open $directory: $!";
@logfile = grep {/\.log$/} readdir(LOGDIR)        # only .log files
    or die "unable to read $directory: $!";

foreach my $logfile (@logfile) {
    unless ($handle = new FileHandle "<$directory/$logfile") {
        print "Unable to open $logfile: $!\n";
        next;
    }

    unless (read $handle, $string, 5, 0 ) {     # get first 5 bytes
        print "unable to read $logfile: $!\n";
        close $handle;
        next;
    }
    $date = (stat $handle)[9];        # get modify time
    close $handle;
    $number{"$string,$date"}++;

    print "$logfile --> $string,$date," . $number{"$string,$date"} . "
+.log\n";
    rename "$directory/$logfile", "$directory/$string,$date," . $numbe
+r{"$string,$date"} . ".log"
        or print "unable to rename $logfile: $!\n";
}
[download]

It's great, but I run into a couple of problems. On a Windows 2k box I get an error saying the files can't be renamed because I don't have access (logged on as admin, full control and ownership of all the files in question). And on a Windows ME box it tells me they're unable to be renamed because there is 'No such file or directory.'

I wasn't kidding when I said I was brand new to all of this, so attempts to fix it have been less than successful. Here's what I have so far, be gentle:

use FileHandle;

my $directory = 'c:\temp';
my @logfile;
my $handle;
my %number;
my $date;
my $string;

opendir LOGDIR, $directory
    or die "Unable to open $directory: $!";
@logfile = grep {/\.log$/} readdir(LOGDIR)        # only .log files
    or die "unable to read $directory: $!";

foreach my $logfile (@logfile) {
    unless ($handle = new FileHandle "<$directory/$logfile") {
        print "Unable to open $logfile: $!\n";
        next;
    }

    unless (read $handle, $string, 5, 0 ) {     # get first 5 bytes
        print "unable to read $logfile: $!\n";
        close $handle;
        next;
    }
    $date = (stat($handle))9;
    $rdate = (localtime($date));
    close $handle;
    $number{"$string,$rdate"}++;
    print "$logfile --> $string, $rdate " . '(' . $number{"$string,$rdate"} . ')' . ".log\n";
    rename "$directory/$logfile", "$directory/$string,$rdate" . $number{"$string,$rdate"} . ".log"
        or print "unable to rename $logfile: $!\n";
}

I also want to thank everyone for their help, it's a learning experience and I appreciate everyone's contribution. Just looking forward to the time when I'll be the one offering assistance.