admin script help

[mhearse]

I'm working with a machine that has a problem with the ownership of symlinks. I need to search the entire directory tree for symlinks. Then, if they are owned by a specific user, change the user and group. Then I want to echo the full path to the symlink changed. This machine is using Perl 4, so I don't think modules are an option. I'd appreciate any help/suggestions.

chomp (@files = `ls -R /`);    #Is there a better way to
                               #find all symlinks on system?
foreach $x (@files) {
   if (-l $x && -o $x) {       #How do I test for ownership 
      chown (1234, 35, $x);    #of a specific user?
      print "Changed $x\n";    #How do I print the full path?
   }
}

[Abigail-II]

If all you have is perl4, you might as well use a shell one-liner. Something like the following ought to do:

    find / -type l -user "olduser" -exec chown "newuser:newgroup" {} \
+;

Abigail

[ehdonhon]

File::Find has a neat utility called 'find2perl'. Take a few minutes to learn that, and it will write 90% of your script for you.

update I missed the part about using Perl 4 when I read your post the first time. If the File::Find module is out, then how about just opening a pipe from the "find" command?

[Juerd]

[aquarium]

you should check if each file/symlink you find to see if it's a symlink or file, if you want to change the ownership of the symlink itself, as this is done with "chown -s symlink_name" ..otherwise a usual chown only changes the ownership of the file pointed to by the symlink.