10/6    Perl question: I want to use something like
        @files = readdir(DIR);
        and get the a list of files, not just the first one in DIR.
        How do I tell readdir to give me the whole list, not just one?
        I rtfm'ed and it only said this behavior was possible.
        \_ perl works better if you don't treat it as C.
           @file = readdir($DIR);
                            \_ perl morks better if you have a clue.
                               readdir takes an open FILEHANDLE, not a var.
                               \_ Believe it or not, with IO::Dir, it is
                                  possible to generate anonymous references to
                                  directory handles which you can then assign
                                  to regular variables.
        \_ why not just write a trivial function that does this (preferably
           using readdir)? Also, have you considered using perl's glob()?
           It could be what you need ..
        \_      opendir(DIR, $somedir) || die "can't opendir $somedir: $!";
                while( $name = readdir(DIR))
                  {
                  next if( $name eq ".");
                  next if( $name eq "..");
                  push( @files, $name);
                  }
                closedir (DIR);
            \_ or if what you really want is just the files in that
               directory:
                    opendir DIR, $somedir;
                    @files = grep {-f} readdir DIR;
                    closedir DIR;
               -geordan
                 \_ You are rad.
                \_ What is that grep {-f} doing?  That was what I didn't
                   get in the perlfunc example.
                   \_ It's the function for grep to check for truth.  in this
                      case it's the "test" function, -f, which tests if the
                      argument is a normal file. --scotsman
                      \_ You could also use this to get just directories
                         (-d), links (-l), sockets (-S)... see the perlfunc
                         page for the rest of the flags. -geordan
        \_ or:
           @files = <$somedir/*>;
                \_ even more rad.
           \_ Note that this will return all entries that would be globbed
              by the shell for *, including directories, links, sockets,
              etc.  Also I believe this actually forks off a shell process
              to run the glob, so it might be slower if you care. -geordan