NAME

File - Module for file manipulation


SYNOPSIS

  use PIRL::File;

  File::Filename_Extension ($filename)
  File::Make_Path ($pathname)


DESCRIPTION

This module contains file manipulation functions.


SUBROUTINES

Filename_Extension

Returns a file extension from a filename string, where a file extension is the last sequence of alphanumeric characters in the filename preceded by one dot ('.') character.

Parameters

$filename - The name of the file, which can be a full pathname.

Return

The extension of the provided filename, or undef if no extension is found.

Example

    Filename_Extension ("/tmp/file.txt")

Returns the string "txt".

Make_Path

Creates all segments of a directory pathname if they don't already exist.

Caveats

A pathname segment refers to a normal file

Attempting to create directories where a normal file already exists will fail. For example, calling Make_Path ("/tmp/test/foo") when /tmp/test is an existing normal file (not a directory) will result in the message "A directory is needed where the /tmp/test file exists." being printed to STDERR. The existing file will not be affected and the return value will be false (0). The /tmp directory will have been created or will have already been present.

No write permission

Attempting to create a directory in a parent directory where the user does not have write permission will fail. For example, calling Make_Path ("/my_dir") without write permission for the root directory ("/") will result in the message "Unable to make the /my_dir directory.", followed by the reason why the directory could not be created - in this case "Permission denied" - being printed to STDERR. If there are directory segments in the pathname before the write locked segment is encountered, they will have been created or will have already been present.

Parameters

$pathname - The directory pathname, absolute or relative, to be created

Return

true (1) on success, or false (0) if there was a problem.

Example

    Make_Path ("/tmp/dir1/dir2/");

Creates the directory dir1 under /tmp, assuming /tmp already exists (which is usually the case on Unix systems), and then the directory dir2 under dir1.


AUTHOR

Drew Davidson and Bradford Castalia, UA/PIRL


COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2005, 2006 Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the Planetary Image Research Laboratory, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.


VERSION

1.4 2006/03/31 01:24:55