Is a directory a file? Do the file operators of perl treat them that way? For example, 
my $dir = "directory";              # this dir exists
my $no_dir = "no.such.directory";   # this one does not

print "$dir exists" if ( -e $dir );
print "$dir is a directory" if ( -d $dir );
print "$no_dir exists" if ( -e $no_dir );
print "$no_dir is a directory" if ( -d $no_dir );

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My first question is with the first line. Will perl consider $dir to exist and do so for all platforms (that's the important part, otherwise I'd just test it, but I need access to the inner secrets here)?

Secondly, is it defined to check if a meaningless word is a directory? Will the last line cause no errors (again, on all platforms)?

And finally, on a related note, what happens if I write 

use File::Path;
rmtree( [$name], 0, 0 );

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and $name is the name of a file, not a directory?

Thanks in advance.

Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle.

In reply to Subtleties of files and directories by DeusVult

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