Bad file descriptor

[Anonymous Monk]

My PERL development was revolving up to now around web and database connectivity. Now, I'm trying to use it in my day-to-day sysadmin task on our UNIX boxes. Here is a very simple script which gives my some trouble for one reason or another:

open(DIR, ".") or die "Can't open the current directory: $!\n";

my @names = readdir(DIR) or die "Unable to read current dir: $!\n";
closedir(DIR);

foreach my $name (@names) {
    next if ($name eq ".");
    next if ($name eq "..");
    
    if (-d $name) {
        print "found a directory: $name\n";
        next;
    }
    
    if ($name eq 'core') {
        print "found 'core' file!\n";
    }
}

The script dies at my @names = readdir(DIR) or die "Unable to read current dir: $!\n"; closedir(DIR); with a "Bad file descriptor" error message.

What does that mean?

Thanks.

[tilly]

You used open rather than opendir.

[bman]

Oops. That's why I like coming here! I was staring at my code not seeing the obivious.

Thanks for pointing this out! :-)

[moen]

That should be:

opendir(DIR, ".") or die "Can't open the current directory: $!\n";

instead of just open()

[Beatnik]

It means a filehandles != a dirhandle. Use opendir() to open a dir for readdir().

Greetz
Beatnik
... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.

[quidity]

You'll not be wanting open rather opendir:

opendir DIRHANDLE,EXPR


Opens a directory named EXPR for processing by readdir, telldir, seekdir, rewinddir, and closedir. Returns true if successful. DIRHANDLEs have their own namespace separate from FILEHANDLEs.