In this case, however, you are bumping into the difference between abs_path() and fast_abs_path(): both generate cannonical paths, but the first relies on the OS by repeatedly issuing chdir() on path fragments in order to verify that Cwd and the OS are in agreement. This will cause problems if the path in question is hypothetical or if you do not have permission to traverse the path tree.

fast_abs_path(), on the other hand, does this "visually" without checking with the OS -- as a consequence it's much faster, but potentially more risky.

99% of the time this is not a problem for most paths. If your paths have a tendency to utilize soft links that cross volumes and mount points (therefore potentially different filesystem types), then it can be a problem. Since Windows doesn't have soft links (shortcuts aren't soft links) then you shouldn't have a problem using fast_abs_path().

Wrote a song about it once. Like to see it? Here it is.

Matt

Welp, I tried

use File::Spec::Functions qw(rel2abs);

print "I am ", rel2abs($0), "\n";
[download]

and it works. It returns the exact same thing, in this one specific case, as plain $0.

First, thanks for all the help! :-)

Second, the decision. I have a bunch of scripts to convert. They will all be shared on a network drive and our team will run them over the network. I need the path so I can determine where the config files for the scripts are, on the fly, even if the whole set of scripts move to another location. This setup will let us always stay in-sync and share scripts, etc.

Is it going to be worthwhile for me to put in the full-blown  use File::Spec::Functions qw(rel2abs);, or can I get away with just $0? This is a judgement call, but I want your judgements! :-)

Update:

After some experimentation, I've decided to go with the following for finding the directory my scripts are running in.

use File::Spec::Functions qw(rel2abs splitpath catpath);

(my $vol, my $dirs, undef) = splitpath( rel2abs($0) );
my $path = catpath( $vol, $dirs, undef );

print "I am ", $path, "\n";
[download]

Thanks!
ibanix

$ echo '$0 & $0 &' > foo; chmod a+x foo; foo;