File::Copy can rename directories, but it can't copy them, so it can't be used to move one to another filesystem.

It's probably simpler to use system to execute a tool provided by your OS.

By the way, no need to put your variables in double quotes.

Update: How about:

my $cp_rv = system('cp', '-rp', $src, $dst);

if ($cp_rv) {
   if ($cp_rv == -1) {
      die("Unable to launch 'cp': $!\n");
   } else {
      system('rm', '-rf', $dst);
      die("Unable to copy \"$src\" directory. \"cp\" returned $?\n");
   }
}

system('rm', '-rf', $src);
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You don't give any platform specs but I would imagine the underlying guts of File::Copy do not support directory moving for your platform. Looking at the docs, it appears to only support file to file and file to directory moving. There's nothing magical about File::Copy - you could always just single step through the debugger to catch where you're failing.

Thanks for your replies. A few more details I should have included...

The platform is Linux.

Permissions are okay.

I can get File::Copy to move a directory from one place to another as long as it's on the same filesystem.

----------------------------
use File::Copy;

my $source_dir = '/home/my/this_dir';
my $destination_dir = '/usr/local/elsewhere/this_dir';

# This works fine.
move($source_dir, $destination_dir);
----------------------------
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In your OP the destination path is /nfsmount/elsewhere/this_dir implying that the filesystem id from a remote server. Have you checked whether the filesystem has been shared on that server as read-only. I know this can throw a spanner in the works under Solaris.

Just a thought,

JohnGG

Is File::Copy the wrong thing to use for this? Or am I just doing something wrong?

Ah Dear Esteemed Monk,
If you'd have added a bit of code such as:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use File::Copy;

move('foobar','/mnt/peter/tmp/')or die $!;
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Is a directory at foo.pl line 4.
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Uhh ... doesn't the OP do the same thing (he even noted the error message in a comment).

-derby

doesn't the OP do the same thing

Senility must be setting in for me. I somehow missed that.

At any rate, I experimented around with this and found that it just plain won't work. Not sure why, but it won't work.

If I were to attempt to do what the OP were doing I'd probably use some form of File::Find foo and remove the original afterwards.

---

Peter L. Berghold -- Unix Professional
Peter -at- Berghold -dot- Net; AOL IM redcowdawg Yahoo IM: blue_cowdawg