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Perl: Locating files in sub-directories

+1 vote
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I'm in the process of moving certain files of the SurfShop script into a sub-directory to clean up the main directory and would like to know the best way for the script to find these files.

I was using this method:

use FindBin qw($Bin);
use lib "$Bin/../ss_files";

which worked for me, but I read somewhere that FindBin can break in certain situations. So I tried the following:

use lib "ss_files";

This also works, but iirc, I read that it won't work across all platforms, is that correct? Is one of these methods better than the other, or is there another way that I haven't found yet?

posted Dec 16, 2013 by Garima Jain

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1 Answer

+1 vote

This method also works, but to be equivalent with the first method it should have been:

use lib "../ss_files";

This second method has a big limitation though. If The current directory when you run the script is the directory in which is place the script, then it will work. If you change the current directory to be another directory, like /home/user for example, it won't work, because it will search for modules in /home/ss_files.

Using FindBin will always get the path to the directory in which is placed the script you run, and then the line "use lib" will set the path of modules starting from that path and not from the current directory.

Is one of these methods better than the other, or is there another way that I haven't found yet?

The first method is better because it will work even if you change the current directory. And you can run the scripts from a cron job for example.

answer Dec 17, 2013 by Amit Parthsarthi
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