Gene Ray wrote:
> Hello all.
>
> I have a script in a directory called "banners"
> I'm trying to read the contents of the directory with a script I
> pulled from a book.
> I keep getting the sub ErrorMessage text and don't understand why.
> Isn't the "." supposed to be for the working directory? ie where the
> script resides?
>
> opendir (LOGDIR,".") || &ErrorMessage;
> @logfiles = readdir (LOGDIR);
> closedir (LOGDIR);
> if (@logfiles) {
> print "<p>You can choose from the following logs:";
> foreach $filename (@logfiles) {
> print "<LI>$filename" unless
> ($filename =~ /^\.+$/);
> }
> }
> sub ErrorMessage {print "sorry no such directory"}
Typically . would be the directory that you called the script from on the
command line (in unix/linux) not necessarily where the script itself
resides. i.e. if the script is in /home/webdragon/bin (which ~/bin being in
my $PATH) and I am currently in /home/webdragon/public_html/images, then
the script will see that last as . if I call it from there, NOT
/home/webdragon/bin/.
For proper cross-platform conversion of directory paths, you'd most likely
wish to use the File::Spec module from CPAN.
In Classic MacOS, the directory : is the current working dir. :: is the
directory above that. Volumename:: would be the top level dir (for that
volume/drive) .. this is unlike unix, where / is ALWAYS the top level dir,
no matter which volumes are mounted.
This makes for some minor confusions when working between MacOS and some
form of unix/linux.
File::Spec is one way to (somewhat) work around these differences, but you
DO need to be aware of just how differently Classic MacOS looks at
directories and volumes, as opposed to the unix way of doing things.
