mingw/html/lib/File/Copy.html

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   5 <title>File::Copy - Copy files or filehandles</title>
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  13 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;File::Copy - Copy files or filehandles</span></strong></big>
  14 </td></tr>
  15 </table>
  16
  17 <p><a name="__index__"></a></p>
  18 <!-- INDEX BEGIN -->
  19
  20 <ul>
  21
  22         <li><a href="#name">NAME</a></li>
  23         <li><a href="#synopsis">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
  24         <li><a href="#description">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
  25         <ul>
  26
  27                 <li><a href="#special_behaviour_if_syscopy_is_defined__os_2__vms_and_win32_">Special behaviour if <code>syscopy</code> is defined (OS/2, VMS and Win32)</a></li>
  28         </ul>
  29
  30         <li><a href="#return">RETURN</a></li>
  31         <li><a href="#notes">NOTES</a></li>
  32         <li><a href="#author">AUTHOR</a></li>
  33 </ul>
  34 <!-- INDEX END -->
  35
  36 <hr />
  37 <p>
  38 </p>
  39 <h1><a name="name">NAME</a></h1>
  40 <p>File::Copy - Copy files or filehandles</p>
  41 <p>
  42 </p>
  43 <hr />
  44 <h1><a name="synopsis">SYNOPSIS</a></h1>
  45 <pre>
  46         use File::Copy;</pre>
  47 <pre>
  48         copy(&quot;file1&quot;,&quot;file2&quot;) or die &quot;Copy failed: $!&quot;;
  49         copy(&quot;Copy.pm&quot;,\*STDOUT);
  50         move(&quot;/dev1/fileA&quot;,&quot;/dev2/fileB&quot;);</pre>
  51 <pre>
  52         use File::Copy &quot;cp&quot;;</pre>
  53 <pre>
  54         $n = FileHandle-&gt;new(&quot;/a/file&quot;,&quot;r&quot;);
  55         cp($n,&quot;x&quot;);</pre>
  56 <p>
  57 </p>
  58 <hr />
  59 <h1><a name="description">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
  60 <p>The File::Copy module provides two basic functions, <code>copy</code> and
  61 <code>move</code>, which are useful for getting the contents of a file from
  62 one place to another.</p>
  63 <ul>
  64 <li>
  65 <p>The <code>copy</code> function takes two
  66 parameters: a file to copy from and a file to copy to. Either
  67 argument may be a string, a FileHandle reference or a FileHandle
  68 glob. Obviously, if the first argument is a filehandle of some
  69 sort, it will be read from, and if it is a file <em>name</em> it will
  70 be opened for reading. Likewise, the second argument will be
  71 written to (and created if need be).  Trying to copy a file on top
  72 of itself is a fatal error.</p>
  73 <p><strong>Note that passing in
  74 files as handles instead of names may lead to loss of information
  75 on some operating systems; it is recommended that you use file
  76 names whenever possible.</strong>  Files are opened in binary mode where
  77 applicable.  To get a consistent behaviour when copying from a
  78 filehandle to a file, use <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_binmode"><code>binmode</code></a> on the filehandle.</p>
  79 <p>An optional third parameter can be used to specify the buffer
  80 size used for copying. This is the number of bytes from the
  81 first file, that wil be held in memory at any given time, before
  82 being written to the second file. The default buffer size depends
  83 upon the file, but will generally be the whole file (up to 2Mb), or
  84 1k for filehandles that do not reference files (eg. sockets).</p>
  85 <p>You may use the syntax <code>use File::Copy &quot;cp&quot;</code> to get at the
  86 ``cp'' alias for this function. The syntax is <em>exactly</em> the same.</p>
  87 </li>
  88 <li>
  89 <p>The <code>move</code> function also takes two parameters: the current name
  90 and the intended name of the file to be moved.  If the destination
  91 already exists and is a directory, and the source is not a
  92 directory, then the source file will be renamed into the directory
  93 specified by the destination.</p>
  94 <p>If possible, <code>move()</code> will simply rename the file.  Otherwise, it copies
  95 the file to the new location and deletes the original.  If an error occurs
  96 during this copy-and-delete process, you may be left with a (possibly partial)
  97 copy of the file under the destination name.</p>
  98 <p>You may use the ``mv'' alias for this function in the same way that
  99 you may use the ``cp'' alias for <code>copy</code>.</p>
 100 </li>
 101 </ul>
 102 <p>File::Copy also provides the <code>syscopy</code> routine, which copies the
 103 file specified in the first parameter to the file specified in the
 104 second parameter, preserving OS-specific attributes and file
 105 structure.  For Unix systems, this is equivalent to the simple
 106 <code>copy</code> routine, which doesn't preserve OS-specific attributes.  For
 107 VMS systems, this calls the <a href="#item_rmscopy"><code>rmscopy</code></a> routine (see below).  For OS/2
 108 systems, this calls the <code>syscopy</code> XSUB directly. For Win32 systems,
 109 this calls <code>Win32::CopyFile</code>.</p>
 110 <p>On Mac OS (Classic), <code>syscopy</code> calls <code>Mac::MoreFiles::FSpFileCopy</code>,
 111 if available.</p>
 112 <p>
 113 </p>
 114 <h2><a name="special_behaviour_if_syscopy_is_defined__os_2__vms_and_win32_">Special behaviour if <code>syscopy</code> is defined (OS/2, VMS and Win32)</a></h2>
 115 <p>If both arguments to <code>copy</code> are not file handles,
 116 then <code>copy</code> will perform a ``system copy'' of
 117 the input file to a new output file, in order to preserve file
 118 attributes, indexed file structure, <em>etc.</em>  The buffer size
 119 parameter is ignored.  If either argument to <code>copy</code> is a
 120 handle to an opened file, then data is copied using Perl
 121 operators, and no effort is made to preserve file attributes
 122 or record structure.</p>
 123 <p>The system copy routine may also be called directly under VMS and OS/2
 124 as <code>File::Copy::syscopy</code> (or under VMS as <code>File::Copy::rmscopy</code>, which
 125 is the routine that does the actual work for syscopy).</p>
 126 <dl>
 127 <dt><strong><a name="item_rmscopy"><code>rmscopy($from,$to[,$date_flag])</code></a></strong>
 128
 129 <dd>
 130 <p>The first and second arguments may be strings, typeglobs, typeglob
 131 references, or objects inheriting from IO::Handle;
 132 they are used in all cases to obtain the
 133 <em>filespec</em> of the input and output files, respectively.  The
 134 name and type of the input file are used as defaults for the
 135 output file, if necessary.</p>
 136 </dd>
 137 <dd>
 138 <p>A new version of the output file is always created, which
 139 inherits the structure and RMS attributes of the input file,
 140 except for owner and protections (and possibly timestamps;
 141 see below).  All data from the input file is copied to the
 142 output file; if either of the first two parameters to <a href="#item_rmscopy"><code>rmscopy</code></a>
 143 is a file handle, its position is unchanged.  (Note that this
 144 means a file handle pointing to the output file will be
 145 associated with an old version of that file after <a href="#item_rmscopy"><code>rmscopy</code></a>
 146 returns, not the newly created version.)</p>
 147 </dd>
 148 <dd>
 149 <p>The third parameter is an integer flag, which tells <a href="#item_rmscopy"><code>rmscopy</code></a>
 150 how to handle timestamps.  If it is &lt; 0, none of the input file's
 151 timestamps are propagated to the output file.  If it is &gt; 0, then
 152 it is interpreted as a bitmask: if bit 0 (the LSB) is set, then
 153 timestamps other than the revision date are propagated; if bit 1
 154 is set, the revision date is propagated.  If the third parameter
 155 to <a href="#item_rmscopy"><code>rmscopy</code></a> is 0, then it behaves much like the DCL COPY command:
 156 if the name or type of the output file was explicitly specified,
 157 then no timestamps are propagated, but if they were taken implicitly
 158 from the input filespec, then all timestamps other than the
 159 revision date are propagated.  If this parameter is not supplied,
 160 it defaults to 0.</p>
 161 </dd>
 162 <dd>
 163 <p>Like <code>copy</code>, <a href="#item_rmscopy"><code>rmscopy</code></a> returns 1 on success.  If an error occurs,
 164 it sets <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$!</code></a>, deletes the output file, and returns 0.</p>
 165 </dd>
 166 </li>
 167 </dl>
 168 <p>
 169 </p>
 170 <hr />
 171 <h1><a name="return">RETURN</a></h1>
 172 <p>All functions return 1 on success, 0 on failure.
 173 $! will be set if an error was encountered.</p>
 174 <p>
 175 </p>
 176 <hr />
 177 <h1><a name="notes">NOTES</a></h1>
 178 <ul>
 179 <li>
 180 <p>On Mac OS (Classic), the path separator is ':', not '/', and the
 181 current directory is denoted as ':', not '.'. You should be careful
 182 about specifying relative pathnames. While a full path always begins
 183 with a volume name, a relative pathname should always begin with a
 184 ':'.  If specifying a volume name only, a trailing ':' is required.</p>
 185 <p>E.g.</p>
 186 <pre>
 187   copy(&quot;file1&quot;, &quot;tmp&quot;);        # creates the file 'tmp' in the current directory
 188   copy(&quot;file1&quot;, &quot;:tmp:&quot;);      # creates :tmp:file1
 189   copy(&quot;file1&quot;, &quot;:tmp&quot;);       # same as above
 190   copy(&quot;file1&quot;, &quot;tmp&quot;);        # same as above, if 'tmp' is a directory (but don't do
 191                                # that, since it may cause confusion, see example #1)
 192   copy(&quot;file1&quot;, &quot;tmp:file1&quot;);  # error, since 'tmp:' is not a volume
 193   copy(&quot;file1&quot;, &quot;:tmp:file1&quot;); # ok, partial path
 194   copy(&quot;file1&quot;, &quot;DataHD:&quot;);    # creates DataHD:file1
 195
 196   move(&quot;MacintoshHD:fileA&quot;, &quot;DataHD:fileB&quot;); # moves (don't copies) files from one
 197                                              # volume to another</pre>
 198 </li>
 199 </ul>
 200 <p>
 201 </p>
 202 <hr />
 203 <h1><a name="author">AUTHOR</a></h1>
 204 <p>File::Copy was written by Aaron Sherman <em>&lt;<a href="mailto:ajs@ajs.com">ajs@ajs.com</a>&gt;</em> in 1995,
 205 and updated by Charles Bailey <em>&lt;<a href="mailto:bailey@newman.upenn.edu">bailey@newman.upenn.edu</a>&gt;</em> in 1996.</p>
 206 <table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
 207 <tr><td class="block" style="background-color: #cccccc" valign="middle">
 208 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;File::Copy - Copy files or filehandles</span></strong></big>
 209 </td></tr>
 210 </table>
 211
 212 </body>
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