Using File::Find to Create a List of Files

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

I'm trying to write a script that will find all files with a specific extension (.hhc in my case) under the current directory. I have some basic code working, but it's not quite what I want and I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm not having much luck with the documentation or Cookbook examples.

Here's the code so far...

use strict;
use File::Find;
use Cwd;

# BEGIN MAIN
$, = "\n";
print &getFileList;
# END MAIN

sub getFileList {
   my @fileList = ();        # list for matching files
   find(\&findFilter, ".");  # populates the list
   return @fileList;

   sub findFilter {
      if ( /\.hhc$/ ) {  # only push matching filenames
         my $curDir = cwd;
         my $fileName = $curDir . $_;
         push @fileList, $fileName;
      }
      return;
   }
}
[download]

Here are my questions and issues:

I'm getting a warning about using @fileList in the sub-subroutine. I know that's bad form, but I couldn't figure out a better way to do this. Is there a better way?
I'd like to extract paths relative to the starting directory. I tried to do this by passing cwd from getFileList to findFilter. However, whenever I pass parameters to fileFilter, it seems to lose the file from $_. Is there a way to pass arguments into fileFilter?

I had to do a lot of digging to get enough information to get this far and really appreciate any help you can offer. I'm also hoping this can serve as a useful example in case anyone else is trying to do the same thing. For example, this can also be a good way to create an MP3 playlist.

Thanks for your help everyone.

Comment on Using File::Find to Create a List of Files Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Using File::Find to Create a List of Files by broquaint (Abbot) on May 16, 2003 at 16:08 UTC
1. I'm getting a warning about using @fileList in the sub-subroutine. I know that's bad form, but I couldn't figure out a better way to do this. Is there a better way? Use an anonymous sub instead of a nested sub (see. tilly's Re (tilly) 9: Why are closures cool? for more info on why they aren't always safe) e.g `sub getFileList { my @fileList = (); # list for matching files my $findFilter = sub { if ( /\.hhc$/ ) { # only push matching filenames my $curDir = cwd; my $fileName = $curDir . $_; push @fileList, $fileName; } return; }; find($findFilter, "."); # populates the list return @fileList; }` [download] 2. I'd like to extract paths relative to the starting directory. I tried to do this by passing cwd from getFileList to findFilter. However, whenever I pass parameters to fileFilter, it seems to lose the file from $_. Is there a way to pass arguments into fileFilter? You may very well just want to use `$File::Find::name` instead of constructing it yourself. As always TIMTOWTDI `use File::Find::Rule; my @files = find( file => name => '*.hhc', dir => '.' );` [download] See. `File::Find::Rule` for more info. HTH `_________ broquaint`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: Using File::Find to Create a List of Files by svsingh (Priest) on May 16, 2003 at 16:18 UTC
The anonymous sub works perfectly. Thank you very much.	[reply]
Re: Using File::Find to Create a List of Files by grantm (Parson) on May 16, 2003 at 20:36 UTC
It looks like you have your problem solved but you may be interested in an alternative solution: `use strict; use File::Find::Rule; use Cwd; $, = "\n"; print File::Find::Rule->file()->name( '*.hhc' )->in( cwd );` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Using File::Find to Create a List of Files by freddo411 (Chaplain) on May 16, 2003 at 16:58 UTC
Hi, You've got the basic idea correct. I also wrote some perl to perform a similar function. I also played loose with the rules by making use of global vars to store the matches. Here's my complete code: #!/usr/bin/perl ######### # # index.pl # # script to create a static HTML file listing all pdfs down # from a particular directory and provide links to them. use Template; use File::Find; use File::Basename; # Template Files my $tmpl_dir = "/export/home/fredk/docs/index/templates"; my $output_tmpl = "$tmpl_dir/pdf.tmpl"; # Name of Output file $outputFile = "pdfs.html"; # Declarations my @list; # Extract the path to this script my $dir = dirname($0); if ( $ARGV[0] ) { $dir = $ARGV[0]; } # OR, override it by the cmd lin +e # What to search for CURRENTly hard coded #my $regex = '.\.html$'; my $regex = '.\.pdf$'; # Create a list "@list" containing the path of the pdfs &find(\&wanted, $dir); # # Output HTML my $vars = { # change to be appro. for the form 'list' => \@list, }; my $template = Template->new(); $template->process( $output_tmpl, $vars, $outputFile) \|\| &error( $template->error()) ; exit; ##################################### # # The wanted() function does whatever verifications you want. # $File::Find::dir contains the current directory name, and $_ # the current filename within that directory. # $File::Find::name contains "$File::Find::dir/$_". You are # chdir()'d to $File::Find::dir when the function is called. # The function may set $File::Find::prune to prune the tree. sub wanted { if ( /$regex/ ) { push( @list, $File::Find::name); } } [download]	[reply] [d/l]


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