How do I get the directory containing a given file?

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

Seems simple enough, but what is the best platform-independent way to get the directory for a given file path?

I want a simple program that is given a list of files (say, output from "find") and for each file, prints the containing directory.

For example:

  $ pwd
  /home/mobiGeek
  $ perl dirs.pl  ../foo.html /etc/passwd /a/b/c/smile.gif
  /home
  /etc
  /a/b/c

Thanks in advance,
mobiGeek.

Comment on How do I get the directory containing a given file?

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Re: How do I get the directory containing a given file? by wog (Curate) on Feb 24, 2002 at 18:48 UTC
`use Cwd qw(abs_path); use File::Basename; my $dir = dirname(abs_path($file));` [download] Turning this into a complete perl program is left as an exercise to the reader.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Answer: How do I get the directory containing a given file? by mobiGeek (Beadle) on Feb 24, 2002 at 19:19 UTC
`use Cwd qw(abs_path); use File::Basename; my $dir = dirname(abs_path("../foo.html"));<BR> print "dir is ($dir)\n";` [download] yields: opendir(../foo.html/..): Not a directory at text.pl line 4 dir is () Other ideas?	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Answer: How do I get the directory containing a given file? by wog (Curate) on Feb 24, 2002 at 20:02 UTC
It appears that Cwd::abs_path has issues in 5.6.1 (which seem to be fixed in bleedperl). You can get around this by reversing the calls: `use Cwd qw(abs_path); use File::Basename; my $dir = abs_path(dirname($file));` [download]	[reply] [d/l]