Hidden file attribute in Win32

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

Is there any 'nice' way to check if a file is hidden in windows without THIS :-

my $hideflag=`attrib $src`;
if ( $hideflag=~m/^    H/ )
{
[download]

stat & file test operators seem to not have anything to offer.

Title edit by tye (was "Hide well Frodo")

Comment on Hidden file attribute in Win32 Download Code

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Re: Hidden file attribute in Win32 (was: Hide well Frodo) by VSarkiss (Monsignor) on May 21, 2002 at 17:14 UTC
You can use the Win32::File module, which is a little simpler than Win32API::File, like so: `use Win32::File qw(GetAttributes HIDDEN); my $attr; if (GetAttributes($src, $attr)) { if ($attr & HIDDEN) { # whatever.... } } else { warn "Error getting attributes of $src"; }` [download] I don't do a lot of Win32 programming but just happened to know this one because I had to do something similar a while ago.... Update Added code to check return value of GetAttributes. Shame on me for forgetting. Forty Hail Larrys.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Hidden file attribute in Win32 (was Hide well Frodo) by particle (Vicar) on May 21, 2002 at 17:03 UTC
`use Win32API::File;` [download] i think GetHandleInformation is the method, and FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN is the flag you'll want. sorry i don't have a complete example for you. ~Particle accelerates	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Hidden file attribute in Win32 by marinersk (Priest) on Jul 09, 2016 at 04:45 UTC
Just to expand a bit on the answers given: `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use Win32::File; my $hidfnm = 'hideme.txt'; my $getatr = 0; my $getret = &Win32::File::GetAttributes($hidfnm, $getatr); if ($getret) { if ($getatr & HIDDEN) { print "File is hidden. Unhiding\n"; } else { print "File is not hidden. Hiding\n"; } # Toggle the HIDDEN flag my $setatr = ($getatr ^ HIDDEN); my $setret = &Win32::File::SetAttributes($hidfnm, $setatr); } __END__` [download] Results: Read more... (2 kB)	[reply] [d/l] [select]