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

Ok, now i really have a brain teaser...

i am making a database. i basically am finished. now im making a program which links directories and categories. In this linker, i have to grab a directory tree and plug it into each config file for each directory. This is accomplished easily, but what is hard is the categories...

you see, there is a category name for each directory, and although i have a way of telling exactly what directory im in, i have no way of telling the full path of categories im in. Basically, i can tell what the current category for the current directory is, but i can't (correctly) get the FULL PATH of categories.

for instance, i know am in directory /webdbase/pc/sw and i know that it is category SoftWare but i dont know how to tell that i am in /Main/PC Stuff/SoftWare. I can record each succeeding category, but that only works if there's 1 directory in each directory (a straight line).

So i thought, maybe i could use a hash, but many of my directory names are the same so it wouldn't work right. so as i parse through different categories and directories, how can i keep them all in line?

To get the directories i made a subroutine that recursively searches for all dirs, then goes back and searches those dirs. it finds all dirs with "db_engine.conf" and puts them all into an array. then i just erase the "db_engine.conf" and i have the full directories.

if you dont get what im saying email me at psypete@phreaker.net and ill give you a copy of the linker so far if you need it.

Edit 2001-04-04 by tye

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: My kingdom for a substring
by rchiav (Deacon) on Apr 04, 2001 at 18:40 UTC
    Without the code it's hard to comment. The only thing that I can offer of value is to ask if you're using File::Find.

    If not, I think it will do what you're looking for. $File::Find::name contains the full path to whatever you're working with at the moment. You pass it a sub to call for each file/dir it finds. Here's one that I use to purge all files older than 14 days. 

    sub process_file {

    my($name, @contents);
    $name = $File::Find::name;
    #change /'s to 's for the attrib command on windows platforms
    $name =~ s#/#\\#g;
    if (!-l && -d _) {
        unless (@contents = <$File::Find::name/*>) {
            if (rmdir($File::Find::name)) {
                    print LOGFILE "Directory $name empty - deleted.\n"
+;
            }
            elsif ((!`attrib -R $name`) && (rmdir($File::Find::name)))
+ {
                print LOGFILE "Directory $name empty - deleted(Read On
+ly).\n";
            }
            else {
                print LOGFILE "ERR: Can't delete $name - $!\n";
            }
        }
    }
    else {
        my ($age, $size, $max_age);

        $max_age = 14;
        $age = int( -M ) < int( -C ) ? int( -M ) : int( -C );
        if ($age > $max_age)  {
            $size = (-s);
            if (unlink($File::Find::name) ) {
                print "$File::Find::name, - $age days, $size \n";
                print LOGFILE "$File::Find::name, - $age days, $size \
+n";
            }
            elsif ((!`attrib -R $name`) && (unlink($File::Find::name))
+) {
                print LOGFILE "$File::Find::name, - $age days, $size (
+Read Only)\n\n";
            }
            else {
                print LOGFILE "ERR: Couldn't delete $File::Find::name 
+- $!\n";
            }
        }
    }
}

    [download]
    Hope that helps.. Rich
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Re: My kingdom for a substring
by Masem (Monsignor) on Apr 04, 2001 at 18:42 UTC
    I would create a nest hash of hashes, such as : 
    my %data = (
    'main' => 'Top Level',
    'pc' => ( 
        'main' => 'PC Software',
        'gfx' => (
             'main' => 'Graphics',
             ...
                 ),
         ....
             )
     ...);

    [download]
    Namely, one fixed hash entry, in this case 'main', to be the catagory for that directory, and other entries as hashes to other sub directories.

    Thus, given a directory path, you can generate the Catagory Path as... 

    sub get_catagory_path {
    my @paths = split /\//, $_[0];  # may need to play with leading /
    my @catagories;
    my $working_hash = \@data;
    foreach $dir ( @paths ) {
       push @catagories $working_hash->{'main'};
       $working_hash = $working_hash->{ $dir };
    }
    return join '/', @catagories;
}

    [download]
    UNTESTED!!!
    Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain
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Re: My kingdom for a substring
by DeaconBlues (Monk) on Apr 04, 2001 at 19:00 UTC
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