To delete or not to delete...

[bertlacy]

Hey guy's,

I wrote a perl script to list files in a certain directory and then give the user the option of typing in what file he/she wants to encrypt. Everything works fine but I want to give the user the option of Deleting the original file by hitting Y or just hitting N and exiting. I have attached the code that I have thus far... Any ideas?

#!/usr/bin/perl

print "***********************************************************************\n";
print "\tWelcome to the Robert's Encryption Script!\n";
print "***********************************************************************\n\n";


my $gpg = ".gpg";
my $out_dir = "/my/out/";
my $dir = '/my/dir/';

opendir(DIR, $dir) or die "Can't get a file listing in $dir: !";
my @array = readdir DIR;
close DIR;

foreach $file (@array) {
print "\t--- Found this file...\n";
print "\t\t--> $file\n";
}



print "\t***********************************************************\n";
print "\t Please type in what file you would like to encrypt...\n";
print "\t***********************************************************\n\n";

print "File Name... \n";
$temp = <STDIN> ;
chop $temp;
print "You Typed--> $temp \n";

print "\t \n";
print "\t***********************************************************\n";
print "\t Begin encryption of file $temp\n";
print "\t***********************************************************\n\n";



print "\t---Attempting to encrypt $temp\n\n";

system "gpg -e -r rolacy < $dir$temp > $out_dir$temp$gpg";


print "\t~~~ Encrypted file name is $out_dir$temp.gpg\n";

 

[KevinADC]

What have you tried in regards to deleting? This is very optimistic:

print "\t---Attempting to encrypt $temp\n\n";
system "gpg -e -r rolacy < $dir$temp > $out_dir$temp$gpg";
print "\t~~~ Encrypted file name is $out_dir$temp.gpg\n";

what happens if the gpg fails to encrypt the script? And allowing user input to be used directly in a sytem() call is asking for trouble.





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- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[PaulTEG]

instead of unlinking the file I'd be tempted to move into a restorable area not unlike a wastebasket. You could store original location, date of 'removal', etc, etc, and when they go into the 'Bin', you could let them restore files. Also, you have a loop, so it may be that you could generate a number, instead of possible typo's on filename entry. Still need to echo the filename for verification.

Paul
------------------------------------
Spend an hour a week on CPAN, helps cure all known programming ailments ;-)

 

[spookie]

bertlacy
As Kevin has pointed out, its very dangerous to run system command on user input w/o validating it.

For the deletion of the original file part, you can use logic something like:

print "Do you want to delete the original file... \n";
$file_to_delete = <STDIN> ;
chmop ($file_to_delete)  ;
print "You Typed--> $file_to_delete \n";
print "File to be deleted $dir$temp\n" ;

if ( $file_to_delete =~ /Y/i ) 
{
#	`rm $dir$temp` ;  uncomment this line when you are sure about file to be deleted.
}

P.S. Code NOT tested.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I never set a goal because u never know whats going to happen tommorow.

 

[travs69]

use unlink instead of a system call to to

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Travis - Those who say it cannot be done are usually interrupted by someone else doing it; Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions;