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25.3. Files and Filesystems

File path components are separated with / on Unix, with \ on Windows, and with : on Macs. Some systems support neither hard links (link) nor symbolic links (symlink, readlink, lstat). Some systems pay attention to capitalization of filenames, some don't, and some pay attention when creating files but not when reading them.

There are modules that can help. The standard File::Spec modules provide some functions of the Right Thing persuasion:

use File::Spec::Functions;
chdir( updir() );        # go up one directory
$file = catfile( curdir(), 'temp', 'file.txt' );
That last line reads in ./temp/file.txt on Unix and Windows, or :temp:file.txt on Macs, or [.temp]file.txt on VMS, and stores the file's contents in $file.

The File::Basename module, another platform-tolerant module bundled with Perl, splits a pathname into its components: the base filename, the full path to the directory, and the file suffix.

Here are some tips for writing portable file-manipulating Perl programs:



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