Re: Re: Re: File::Copy dying on Win2k when target file already there

[John M. Dlugosz]

You can change the attribute using chmod, built into Perl, instead of calling out to system. I tried it using the UNIX bits meanings, and it did indeed turn off the R flag on Windows NT.

That works the same on both platforms, so you don't even have to make it conditional.

[scain]

John,

I did as you suggested and it works well. The readdir/while loop in the code above now looks like this:

opendir PLUGINS, "conf/plugins" or die "unable to opendir ./conf/plugi
+ns\n";
while (my $pluginfile = readdir(PLUGINS) ) {
    my $localfile = Bio::Root::IO->catfile('conf/plugins',$pluginfile)
+;
    if (-f $localfile) {
        my $installfile = Bio::Root::IO->catfile($plugindir, $pluginfi
+le);
        chmod (0666, $installfile);
        copy($localfile, $installfile)
            or die "$localfile unable to copy to $installfile : $!\n";
        chmod (0444, $installfile);
    }
}
closedir PLUGINS;

The only caveat being that I had to chmod the files to 444 (readonly by everyone, including the owner (root in this case)). It is fine for Windows, but an annoyance on unix. I would have preferred 644 (writeable by the owner), but on Windows, that is the same as world writeable (from Perl's chmod perspective).

(I hate having to type :w and then :w! when I am reminded once again that the file is readonly.)

Thanks,


Scott
Project coordinator of the Generic Model Organism Database Project

[John M. Dlugosz]

I guess the chmod on Windows is using the "word" write bit as the single read-only flag.

You could conditionally note the value to use, once:

use constant ROFLAG => $^O eq 'MSWin32' ? 0444 : 0644;

and then use that constant in your code.

I don't know what you mean about typing :w.

—John

[Aristotle]

First of all, in reply to John M. Dlugosz, please don't use eq: use constant ROFLAG => $^O =~ /win32/i ? 0444 : 0644;

There is too much legacy code that does so already. If everyone used a regex $^O could be changed to contain more details about the exact version of Windows.

However, this solution strikes me as an ugly hack anyway. How about this?

chmod +(stat)[2] | 0444, $_ for $installfile;

Makeshifts last the longest.