rename

[jrsmith]

does the rename function delete the primary file regardless of whether the rename succeeds? i tested this and it seems as if this is true, is there any way to keep it from doing this or am i going to have to come up with some kind of workaround?
thanx for any help..

[lhoward]

The safe way to do this is to use the link/unlink commands. (pseudocode below)

link file to new name/location
if error
    handle error
else
    unlink old filename/location

note that this won't work if you are renaming across partitions on UNIX (but then neither will the rename command).

[mikfire]

For the platofrm generic way, I would direct your attention to the core module File::Copy.

From the perldoc pages, I quote

  If possible, move() will simply rename the file.
  Otherwise, it copies the file to the new location and
  deletes the original.  If an error occurs during this
  copy-and-delete process, you may be left with a
  (possibly partial) copy of the file under the
  destination name.

which seems to handle both the platform dependant issues as well as the the question jrsmith asked.

Mik
Mik Firestone ( perlus bigotus maximus )

[jrsmith]

just my luck, link is unsupported in win32

[lhoward]

I never use win32, but I imagine something like this would work (pseudo-code below):

copy file from old name to new name
if error
    handle error
else
    delete old file

[Adam]

Weird. Unlink() is implemented.