List

# When dealing with a directory of files it is often necessary to work on

# the list.

use Files::List;

# list() will return a list of files that fit a regular expression mask. Only the

# file name is compared against the mask. The fill name and path is

# returned. This path may be relative or absolute, depending on the input

# path. The result can be used as the input to a compare method to find

# the most recently changed file in the list.

$mask = '\.txt$';

@files = Files::list( $mask, 'path1',...);# 1 level

$files = Files::list( $mask, 'path1',...); @$files;

# listTree goes one further by returning files matching the mask on

# the path and any directories under the path. Again the mask is only

# measured against the file name.

@files = Files::listTree( $mask, 'path1', 'path2', ...);

$files = Files::listTree( $mask, 'path1', 'path2', ...); @$files;

# returns ('path1/one.txt', 'path1/subdir/two.txt', 'path2/three.txt', ...)

# while listTree only returns files, listDirectories only returns directories -

# under a single specific directory. It does not walk lower than the one level.

@dirs = Files::listDirectories( 'path1');

$dirs = Files::listDirectories( 'path1'); @$dirs;

# returns ('path1/subdir1', 'path1/subdir2'...) - one level only