Hi, Joe,
On Mon, 8 Dec 2003 12:04:28 -0500, "Joseph Discenza"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Peter Davis wrote, on Monday, December 08, 2003 11:04 AM
> : I'm keeping my e-mail in MH format, which means each folder is a
> : directory, and each message is in a separate file, and the filename
> is: the message number. Now I'm writing a Perl script to re-sort
> messages: into different folders, so I need to find the highest
> number already in: the folder, so I can add one to it and use that as
> the new filename.
>
> Yours is the only process putting messages in the folder, so
> there's no race conditions? OK.
That's right.
> You've got a bunch of files in each directory, or you wouldn't
> be worried about efficiency, right?
Yes. There are potentially thousands of files in each directory.
> Do you need to find the last for each folder over different
> invocations of the program, or is this a one-time sort? If it's
> one-time, put the highest number in a hash or array.
Well, I plan to cache the number during the run of the script, so that
if I move multiple messages to the same folder, I can just increment the
cache each time, without having to re-determine the highest message
number.
> Now, presuming it's different invocations, the simplest way is to
> put the highest number in a control file: open that up, read the
> number, and close. Then when you're done, open for writing, write
> the new highest number, and close.
Yes, that would work, though I'm wary of keeping persistent information
this way. If I do something between invocations that changes the
message numbering (e.g., MH sortm), it will invalidate the control file.
If I can make it reasonably efficient, I can bear the cost of getting
these numbers once per mail fetch.
Thanks!
-pd
--
--------
Peter Davis
Funny stuff at http://www.pfdstudio.com
The artwork formerly shown as prints
List of resources for children's writers and illustrators at:
http://www.pfdstudio.com/cwrl.html
_______________________________________________
Perl-Win32-Users mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe: http://listserv.ActiveState.com/mailman/mysubs
