Remove files from a directory using perl

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi all,

I have the following question. Considder that in the directory /code the script remove.pl exists. What i want is to run this script and remove some files that exist in the directory /dir/tmp. I use the below code but it does not work.

system("cd /dir/code");
system("rm FileName");

Best Regards,
Christos

2

Try:

system("cd /dir/code; rm FileName");

Each system() call results in a call to a subshell. Once that subshell exits, it "forgets" which directory you told it to cd into, so the subsequent one knows nothing about it.

I'm sure there are built-in perl calls to do these file removals that don't require the invocation of a subshell which would be more efficient.

3 
unlink "/dir/code/FileName";

The cd is Useless in the system() invocation too, you can obviously use a path name with rm as well.

4

He wants to unlink from the temp directory, so:

unlink "/dir/temp/filename"
5

Here's another way

$command = /usr/bin/rm;
$dir = /path/to/something;
@files = ("filename1","filename2","filename3");

for $file(@files)
{
   $args = "$command $dir/$file";
   system $args;
}

Or as a subroutine
(this will allow you to send cp/rm/mv as well as changing the path)

sub doManageFiles($$@)
{
   my $command   = $_[0];
   my $path      = $_[1];
   my $files     = $_[2];

   for (@{$files})
   {
      $args = "$command $path/$_";
      system $args;
   }
}

Of course, as perl is TIMTOWTDI, there are a few perl modules available via cpan that do file manipluation, such that you don't need to call an external "rm".

6

You don't need anything for simple deletes, just use unlink() for files and rmdir() for directories. Shelling out to delete files is a big waste. If you needed to zap an entire directory tree easily you could use File::Path.

7

Thanks for the tip, Kevin. I've used rmdir before, but I've not had a need for unlink...

The subroutine that I provided for my example was originally used for running some binaries against a handful of files - seemed easy enough to adapt for this.

I think that you've saved me a line or 5 going forward... :slight_smile:

Cheers,

  • Avron