«

Is there any simple way to determine if a reference returned via readdir
is a soft- or hardlink rather than a directory or filename.
None of my perl books seem to show any way of telling.

Thanks

>>>>> "j" == jsowers <> writes:

j> Thanks, but not quite the answer. readlink will return the name of
j> the directory/file which the link points to. I need something
j> equivalent to the '-d' to determine if an item is a directory.
j> Basically, I want to avoid following the link when walking a
j> directory tree.

perldoc -f -X

uri

--
Uri Guttman ------ -------- http://www.stemsystems.com
--Perl Consulting, Stem Development, Systems Architecture, Design and Coding-
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<> wrote:

> Thanks, but not quite the answer.


Huh? It looks like the answer to me...


> readlink will return the name of the
> directory/file which
> the link points to.


Or undef if it is not a symbolic link.


> I need something equivalent to the '-d' to determine
> if an item is a directory.


That is not the same question, and you already know the answer
to that question.


> Basically, I want to avoid following the link when walking a directory
> tree.


Select those that are not symbolic and are directories (untested):

my @dirs_not_links = grep { !readlink() and -d } @directories;


--
Tad McClellan SGML consulting
Perl programming
Fort Worth, Texas

Joe Smith <> wrote:
> In article <be1uub$9dj$>, <> wrote:
>> I need something equivalent to the '-d' to determine if an
>> item is a directory.
>
> Simply test for symlink _before_ testing for directoryness.
>
> if (-l $item) {
> (-d _) and print "Symlink to a directory\n";
^^^^
This will never be true.

> (-f _) and print "Symlink to a file\n";
> (-e _) or print "Broken symlink; target does not exist\n";
^^^^
And this will always be true.

You'll need to do a regular stat() inside the block -- otherwise
the special _ filehandle will refer to the results of the lstat()
and you know already that the *symlink* exists and is neither
file nor directory.

--
Steve