Using READDIR to scan files in order

[GezH]

Hello, I have a simple script which uses the READDIR command to scan through some files in a directory.

I thought the script was fine, as it always scanned the files in date order. But when we moved the script onto a different server (with different OS) these files are now being scanned in a seemingly random order.

Is there a way of enforcing this so that it is always in date order? A flag maybe?

Many thanks!

 

[mbrooks]

Please post the code in question.

M. Brooks

http://mbrooks.info

 

[GezH]

foreach $inputFile (readdir INDIR)
{
next if($inputFile=~/^\./); # ignore . files
next if(-d $inputFile); # Ignore directories

# do stuff with the file...

}

 

[KevinADC]

the code you posted does not order anything.

- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[GezH]

As I said, I didn't think I needed to - as it worked correctly in my environment. I want to know how I DO order it!

 

[KevinADC]

See how this works. Assumes you are in the directory where the files reside:

opendir(INDIR,$yourdir) or die "$!":
my @files = readdir INDIR;
close INDIR;
@files = sort {(stat($a))[9] <=> (stat($b))[9]} @files;
foreach my $inputFile (@files)
{
        next if($inputFile=~/^\./); # ignore . files
        next if(-d $inputFile); # Ignore directories

        # do stuff with the file...

}

- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[GezH]

That's brilliant - thanks Kevin.

Out of interest, could this be made to work from a different directory to where the files are stored?

 

[KevinADC]

one way:

my $yourdir = 'path/to/files';
opendir(INDIR,$yourdir) or die "$!":
my @files = readdir INDIR;
close INDIR;
@files = sort {(stat("$yourdir/$a"))[9] <=> (stat("$yourdir/$b"))[9]} @files;
foreach my $inputFile (@files)
{
        next if("$yourdir/$inputFile" =~/^\./); # ignore . files
        next if(-d "$yourdir/inputFile"); # Ignore directories

        # do stuff with the file...

}

btw, hardly brilliant, this is very basic sorting, using the stat() function to get the desired file attribute to do the sorting with. But I appreciate the compliment.

- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!