You should check the value of $?.

Of course, in your specific example, why don't you just do a DOS  MOVE instead of a  COPY &  unlink ? Again, you can capture the return codes from each move to put into a hash to know the number of files successfully and unsuccessfully moved (I'm assuming that's what you're using the  $i++ for.

- - arden.

use File::Copy;

my $status = copy("file1.txt","file2.txt");

if ($status)
{
   print "good, now deleting\n";
   unlink "file1.txt";
}
else
{
   print "bad, don't delete\n";
}
[download]

    use File::NCopy qw(copy);

    copy "file","other_file";
    copy "file1","file2","file3","directory";

    # we want to copy the directory recursively
    copy \1,"directory1","directory2";
    copy \1,"file1","file2","directory1","file3","directory2","file4",
        "directory";

    # can also use references to file handles, this is for backward
    # compatibility with File::Copy
    copy \*FILE1,\*FILE2;
    copy \*FILE1,"file";
    copy "file1",\*FILE2;

    # we don't specify \1 as the first argument because we don't want 
+to
    # copy directories recursively
    copy "*.c","*.pl","programs";
    copy "*", "backup";

    use File::NCopy;

    # the below are the default config values
    $file = File::NCopy->new(
            'recursive'      => 0,
            'preserve'       => 0,
            'follow_links'   => 0,
            'force_write'   => 0,
            'set_permission' => \&File::NCopy::u_chmod,
            'file_check'     => \&File::NCopy::f_check,
            'set_times'      => \&File::NCopy::s_times,
    );

    set_permission will take two file names, the original to get the
    file permissions from and the new file to set the file permissions
    for.

    file_check takes two parameters, the file names to check the file 
+to
    copy from and the file to copy to. I am using flock for Unix
    systems.
    Default for this is \&File::NCopy::f_check.  On Unix you can also 
+use
    \&File::NCopy::unix_check.  This one compares the inode and device
    numbers.

    set_times is used if the preserve attribute is true.  It preserves
    the access and modification time of the file and also attempts to
    set the owner of the file to the original owner.  This can be usef
+ul
    in a script used by root, though enyone can preserve the access an
+d
    modification times. This also takes two arguments.  The file to ge
+t
    the stats from and apply the stats to.

    On Unix boxes you shouldn't need to worry.  On other system you ma
+y
    want to supply your own sub references.

    $file = File::NCopy->new(recursive => 1);
    $file->copy "file","other_file";
    $file->copy "directory1","directory2";

    $file = File::NCopy->new(u_chmod => \&my_chmod,f_check => \&my_fch
+eck);
    $file->copy "directory1","directory2";
[download]

my $result = system("copy bleh blah");
#system returns opposite ... IIRC

if(! $result)
{
   print "success\n";
}
else 
{
   print "oh no!\n";
}
[download]

The usual (and slightly more compact) way to check a system call is:

system( $cmd ) == 0 or die "System call failed: $!";

The " == 0" deals with the fact that system returns 0/false on success, not true like most perl functions.

---

If the information in this post is inaccurate, or just plain wrong, don't just downvote - please post explaining what's wrong.
That way everyone learns.