File::Path - Create or remove directory trees
This document describes version 2.12 of File::Path.
- use File::Path qw(make_path remove_tree);
- @created = make_path('foo/bar/baz', '/zug/zwang');
- @created = make_path('foo/bar/baz', '/zug/zwang', {
- verbose => 1,
- mode => 0711,
- });
- make_path('foo/bar/baz', '/zug/zwang', {
- chmod => 0777,
- });
- $removed_count = remove_tree('foo/bar/baz', '/zug/zwang');
- $removed_count = remove_tree('foo/bar/baz', '/zug/zwang', {
- verbose => 1,
- error => \my $err_list,
- });
- # legacy (interface promoted before v2.00)
- @created = mkpath('/foo/bar/baz');
- @created = mkpath('/foo/bar/baz', 1, 0711);
- @created = mkpath(['/foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 0711);
- $removed_count = rmtree('foo/bar/baz', 1, 1);
- $removed_count = rmtree(['foo/bar/baz', 'blurfl/quux'], 1, 1);
- # legacy (interface promoted before v2.06)
- @created = mkpath('foo/bar/baz', '/zug/zwang', { verbose => 1, mode => 0711 });
- $removed_count = rmtree('foo/bar/baz', '/zug/zwang', { verbose => 1, mode => 0711 });
This module provide a convenient way to create directories of arbitrary depth and to delete an entire directory subtree from the filesystem.
The following functions are provided:
The make_path
function creates the given directories if they don't
exists before, much like the Unix command mkdir -p
.
The function accepts a list of directories to be created. Its behaviour may be tuned by an optional hashref appearing as the last parameter on the call.
The function returns the list of directories actually created during the call; in scalar context the number of directories created.
The following keys are recognised in the option hash:
The numeric permissions mode to apply to each created directory
(defaults to 0777), to be modified by the current umask. If the
directory already exists (and thus does not need to be created),
the permissions will not be modified.
mask
is recognised as an alias for this parameter.
Takes a numeric mode to apply to each created directory (not
modified by the current umask). If the directory already exists
(and thus does not need to be created), the permissions will
not be modified.
If present, will cause make_path
to print the name of each directory
as it is created. By default nothing is printed.
If present, it should be a reference to a scalar. This scalar will be made to reference an array, which will be used to store any errors that are encountered. See the ERROR HANDLING section for more information.
If this parameter is not used, certain error conditions may raise
a fatal error that will cause the program to halt, unless trapped
in an eval block.
If present, will cause any created directory to be owned by $owner
.
If the value is numeric, it will be interpreted as a uid, otherwise
as username is assumed. An error will be issued if the username cannot be
mapped to a uid, or the uid does not exist, or the process lacks the
privileges to change ownership.
Ownership of directories that already exist will not be changed.
user
and uid
are aliases of owner
.
If present, will cause any created directory to be owned by the group $group
.
If the value is numeric, it will be interpreted as a gid, otherwise
as group name is assumed. An error will be issued if the group name cannot be
mapped to a gid, or the gid does not exist, or the process lacks the
privileges to change group ownership.
Group ownership of directories that already exist will not be changed.
- make_path '/var/tmp/webcache', {owner=>'nobody', group=>'nogroup'};
The mkpath() function provide the legacy interface of make_path() with a different interpretation of the arguments passed. The behaviour and return value of the function is otherwise identical to make_path().
The remove_tree
function deletes the given directories and any
files and subdirectories they might contain, much like the Unix
command rm -r
or the Windows commands rmdir /s
and rd /s
. The
only exception to the function similarity is remove_tree
accepts
only directories whereas rm -r
also accepts files.
The function accepts a list of directories to be
removed. Its behaviour may be tuned by an optional hashref
appearing as the last parameter on the call. If an empty string is
passed to remove_tree
, an error will occur.
The functions returns the number of files successfully deleted.
The following keys are recognised in the option hash:
If present, will cause remove_tree
to print the name of each file as
it is unlinked. By default nothing is printed.
When set to a true value, will cause remove_tree
to skip the files
for which the process lacks the required privileges needed to delete
files, such as delete privileges on VMS. In other words, the code
will make no attempt to alter file permissions. Thus, if the process
is interrupted, no filesystem object will be left in a more
permissive mode.
When set to a true value, will cause all files and subdirectories to be removed, except the initially specified directories. This comes in handy when cleaning out an application's scratch directory.
- remove_tree( '/tmp', {keep_root => 1} );
If present, it should be a reference to a scalar. This scalar will be made to reference an array, which will be used to store all files and directories unlinked during the call. If nothing is unlinked, the array will be empty.
This is a useful alternative to the verbose
key.
If present, it should be a reference to a scalar. This scalar will be made to reference an array, which will be used to store any errors that are encountered. See the ERROR HANDLING section for more information.
Removing things is a much more dangerous proposition than
creating things. As such, there are certain conditions that
remove_tree
may encounter that are so dangerous that the only
sane action left is to kill the program.
Use error
to trap all that is reasonable (problems with
permissions and the like), and let it die if things get out
of hand. This is the safest course of action.
The rmtree() function provide the legacy interface of remove_tree() with a different interpretation of the arguments passed. The behaviour and return value of the function is otherwise identical to remove_tree().
The following error handling mechanism is consistent throughout all
code paths EXCEPT in cases where the ROOT node is nonexistent. In
version 2.11 the maintainers attempted to rectify this inconsistency
but too many downstream modules encountered problems. In such case,
if you require root node evaluation or error checking prior to calling
make_path
or remove_tree
, you should take additional precautions.
If make_path
or remove_tree
encounter an error, a diagnostic
message will be printed to STDERR
via carp
(for non-fatal
errors), or via croak
(for fatal errors).
If this behaviour is not desirable, the error
attribute may be
used to hold a reference to a variable, which will be used to store
the diagnostics. The variable is made a reference to an array of hash
references. Each hash contain a single key/value pair where the key
is the name of the file, and the value is the error message (including
the contents of $!
when appropriate). If a general error is
encountered the diagnostic key will be empty.
An example usage looks like:
Note that if no errors are encountered, $err
will reference an
empty array. This means that $err
will always end up TRUE; so you
need to test @$err
to determine if errors occurred.
File::Path
blindly exports mkpath
and rmtree
into the
current namespace. These days, this is considered bad style, but
to change it now would break too much code. Nonetheless, you are
invited to specify what it is you are expecting to use:
- use File::Path 'rmtree';
The routines make_path
and remove_tree
are not exported
by default. You must specify which ones you want to use.
- use File::Path 'remove_tree';
Note that a side-effect of the above is that mkpath
and rmtree
are no longer exported at all. This is due to the way the Exporter
module works. If you are migrating a codebase to use the new
interface, you will have to list everything explicitly. But that's
just good practice anyway.
- use File::Path qw(remove_tree rmtree);
The API was changed in the 2.0 branch. For a time, mkpath
and
rmtree
tried, unsuccessfully, to deal with the two different
calling mechanisms. This approach was considered a failure.
The new semantics are now only available with make_path
and
remove_tree
. The old semantics are only available through
mkpath
and rmtree
. Users are strongly encouraged to upgrade
to at least 2.08 in order to avoid surprises.
There were race conditions 1.x implementations of File::Path's
rmtree
function (although sometimes patched depending on the OS
distribution or platform). The 2.0 version contains code to avoid the
problem mentioned in CVE-2002-0435.
See the following pages for more information:
- http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=286905
- http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/01/msg97623.html
- http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-696
Additionally, unless the safe
parameter is set (or the
third parameter in the traditional interface is TRUE), should a
remove_tree
be interrupted, files that were originally in read-only
mode may now have their permissions set to a read-write (or "delete
OK") mode.
FATAL errors will cause the program to halt (croak
), since the
problem is so severe that it would be dangerous to continue. (This
can always be trapped with eval, but it's not a good idea. Under
the circumstances, dying is the best thing to do).
SEVERE errors may be trapped using the modern interface. If the they are not trapped, or the old interface is used, such an error will cause the program will halt.
All other errors may be trapped using the modern interface, otherwise
they will be carp
ed about. Program execution will not be halted.
make_path
was unable to create the path. Probably some sort of
permissions error at the point of departure, or insufficient resources
(such as free inodes on Unix).
make_path
was not given any paths to create. This message is only
emitted if the routine is called with the traditional interface.
The modern interface will remain silent if given nothing to do.
On Windows, if make_path
gives you this warning, it may mean that
you have exceeded your filesystem's maximum path length.
remove_tree
attempted to determine the initial directory by calling
Cwd::getcwd
, but the call failed for some reason. No attempt
will be made to delete anything.
remove_tree
attempted to stat the initial directory (after having
successfully obtained its name via getcwd
), however, the call
failed for some reason. No attempt will be made to delete anything.
remove_tree
attempted to set the working directory in order to
begin deleting the objects therein, but was unsuccessful. This is
usually a permissions issue. The routine will continue to delete
other things, but this directory will be left intact.
remove_tree
recorded the device and inode of a directory, and then
moved into it. It then performed a stat on the current directory
and detected that the device and inode were no longer the same. As
this is at the heart of the race condition problem, the program
will die at this point.
remove_tree
attempted to change the permissions on the current directory
to ensure that subsequent unlinkings would not run into problems,
but was unable to do so. The permissions remain as they were, and
the program will carry on, doing the best it can.
remove_tree
tried to read the contents of the directory in order
to acquire the names of the directory entries to be unlinked, but
was unsuccessful. This is usually a permissions issue. The
program will continue, but the files in this directory will remain
after the call.
remove_tree
, after having deleted everything in a directory, attempted
to restore its permissions to the original state but failed. The
directory may wind up being left behind.
The current working directory of the program is /some/path/to/here and you are attempting to remove an ancestor, such as /some/path. The directory tree is left untouched.
The solution is to chdir out of the child directory to a place
outside the directory tree to be removed.
remove_tree
, after having deleted everything and restored the permissions
of a directory, was unable to chdir back to the parent. The program
halts to avoid a race condition from occurring.
remove_tree
was unable to stat the parent directory after have returned
from the child. Since there is no way of knowing if we returned to
where we think we should be (by comparing device and inode) the only
way out is to croak
.
When remove_tree
returned from deleting files in a child directory, a
check revealed that the parent directory it returned to wasn't the one
it started out from. This is considered a sign of malicious activity.
Just before removing a directory (after having successfully removed
everything it contained), remove_tree
attempted to set the permissions
on the directory to ensure it could be removed and failed. Program
execution continues, but the directory may possibly not be deleted.
remove_tree
attempted to remove a directory, but failed. This may because
some objects that were unable to be removed remain in the directory, or
a permissions issue. The directory will be left behind.
After having failed to remove a directory, remove_tree
was unable to
restore its permissions from a permissive state back to a possibly
more restrictive setting. (Permissions given in octal).
remove_tree
attempted to force the permissions of a file to ensure it
could be deleted, but failed to do so. It will, however, still attempt
to unlink the file.
remove_tree
failed to remove a file. Probably a permissions issue.
After having failed to remove a file, remove_tree
was also unable
to restore the permissions on the file to a possibly less permissive
setting. (Permissions given in octal).
make_path
was instructed to give the ownership of created
directories to the symbolic name [owner], but getpwnam did
not return the corresponding numeric uid. The directory will
be created, but ownership will not be changed.
make_path
was instructed to give the group ownership of created
directories to the symbolic name [group], but getgrnam did
not return the corresponding numeric gid. The directory will
be created, but group ownership will not be changed.
Allows files and directories to be moved to the Trashcan/Recycle
Bin (where they may later be restored if necessary) if the operating
system supports such functionality. This feature may one day be
made available directly in File::Path
.
When removing directory trees, if you want to examine each file to decide whether to delete it (and possibly leaving large swathes alone), File::Find::Rule offers a convenient and flexible approach to examining directory trees.
The following describes File::Path limitations and how to report bugs.
File::Path rmtree and remove_tree will not work with multithreaded applications due to its use of chdir. At this time, no warning or error results and you will certainly encounter unexpected results.
The implementation that surfaces this limitation may change in a future release.
File::Path is not responsible for triggering the automounts, mirror mounts, and the contents of network mounted filesystems. If your NFS implementation requires an action to be performed on the filesystem in order for File::Path to perform operations, it is strongly suggested you assure filesystem availability by reading the root of the mounted filesystem.
Please report all bugs on the RT queue, either via the web interface:
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=File-Path
or by email:
- bug-File-Path@rt.cpan.org
In either case, please attach patches to the bug report rather than including them inline in the web post or the body of the email.
You can also send pull requests to the Github repository:
https://github.com/rpcme/File-Path
Paul Szabo identified the race condition originally, and Brendan O'Dea wrote an implementation for Debian that addressed the problem. That code was used as a basis for the current code. Their efforts are greatly appreciated.
Gisle Aas made a number of improvements to the documentation for 2.07 and his advice and assistance is also greatly appreciated.
Prior authors and maintainers: Tim Bunce, Charles Bailey, and David Landgren <david@landgren.net>.
Current maintainers are Richard Elberger <riche@cpan.org> and James (Jim) Keenan <jkeenan@cpan.org>.
Contributors to File::Path, in alphabetical order.
This module is copyright (C) Charles Bailey, Tim Bunce, David Landgren, James Keenan, and Richard Elberger 1995-2015. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.