problem with spaces in directory name

[ezechiel]

Hi everyone,

I have a question about spaces in directory names.
If I want to use mkdir something, everything works out, but in this case:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
#
use warnings;

$homedir = "C:/SCRIPT/CJ0249A.1/\"Project Information\"";
$file = "$homedir/exist.txt";

if (-e "$file")
{
        print ("it exists");
} else {print ("boooo");}

I got "booooooo" ..

I tried -e "$file" and -e $file, it doesn't changes anything (what is best practice here?)
I know it has to do with the spaces. But then, this works:

$hide = "attrib -h $file";
system($hide);

I know that this works because in DOS, directories with spaces are put between quotes. And since -e is a perl function and not DOS, I guess Perl doesn't handle directories with spaces, with quotes.

So how could I solve this problem??

Or am i obliged to type

if (-e "c:/blabala/Project\ Information/exist.txt") {
      print("yes");
}

?

[RonB]

Perl knows how to deal with the spaces, so there's no need to do any escaping.

If you plan on using this var in a system call, then we can look at the escaping issue, but based on what you're needing, there's no reason to use a system call.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

[B]use strict;[/B]
use warnings;

[B]my[/B] $homedir = 'C:/SCRIPT/CJ0249A.1/Project Information';
[B]my[/B] $file = "$homedir/exist.txt";
 
if (-e $file)
{
    print 'it exists';
}
else {
    print 'boooo';
}

[ezechiel]

Well,

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
#
use strict;
use warnings;
my $homedir = "c:/SCRIPT";
opendir (IMD, $homedir) or die "Couldn't find dir: IMD ($!)";
my @thefiles= readdir(IMD);
closedir(IMD);

my $x=0;
#create a list of ".1" directories
foreach my $f (@thefiles){    
     if($f =~ /(.+)(\.1$)/i && $f !~ /^\./i){
             my $h_dir = '$homedir/$f/Analyst-$1/Projects/$1/Project Information';
             my $file = "$h_dir/Project.atd";
             # check if dir "analyst-studyID"  exists
             # $1 refers to first parameter of /(.+)(\.1$)/i -> (.+)
             if (-d $h_dir && -e $file){
                     my @res= qx{attrib $h_dir/Project.atd};
                     my @dir_1;
                     
                     if ($res[0] !~ /A\s{3}(H)\s{1,}.+(C\:\\.+)/){
                             $dir_1[$x] = $f;
                             $x++;
                             print ("test x \n $x \n");
                             my $h_file = "attrib +h $h_dir/Project.atd";
                             system($h_file);
                             my $h_xcacls = "xcacls $h_dir/Project.atd /E /P DOMAIN\\User:A";
                             system($h_xcacls);
                     } else {print (" $file is allready hidden\n");}
             } else { print(" directory $h_dir or file Project.atd does not exist \n");}
     }
}
print("\n******************************************************************");
print("\n*                            FINISHED                            *");
print("\n******************************************************************\n\n\a");

#list ".1" directories that have been impacted.
foreach my $d (my @dir_1)
{
        print ("Processed Folders:\n");
        print ($d."\n");
}

no errors, but now, he isn't taking in account the $1 (from ($f =~ /(.+)(\.1$)/i && $f !~ /^\./i) )
anymore.. This is quite annoying :s

Thanks for any help

[nithinpes]

In the below line from your code:

my $h_dir = '$homedir/$f/Analyst-$1/Projects/$1/Project Information';

use double quotes instead of single quotes. There will be no substitution of variables inside single quotes. Single quotes are used for literal strings.

[ezechiel]

Ok,

using double quotes for this one solves the $1 problem,
but now I have the problem again with DOS not accepting the parameters.

For DOS, I have no other choice than using \"Project Information\"
or have I?

[RonB]

You need to learn about Perl's "Quote and Quote-Like Operators".

http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html#Quote-and-Quote-like-Operators

You also need to learn about the different ways of passing args to the system function, i.e. in this case you want to pass a list.

http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/system.html

And, you should search cpan for modules that can aide in accomplishing your task.

For example:
MSDOS::Attrib - Get or set MS-DOS file attributes

http://search.cpan.org/~cjm/MSDOS-Attrib-1.04/lib/MSDOS/Attrib.pm

or
Win32::File - Manage file attributes in perl

http://search.cpan.org/~jdb/Win32-File-0.06/File.pm

A more advanced option would be to use the Win32::API module and make direct calls to the underlying C functions in the proper dll file(s).

[ezechiel]

Hi,

thanks for the hints Ron!

Is there any advantage to using perl modules rather than system calls?
(-> does using modules asks more memory or something in order to load the module? Sorry 'bout the question, but I don't know very well how Perl interacts with the system and hardware).