Manual:

Reference:

-- Perl 5.8.8 documentation --

Fink::Command

Fink::Command - emulate common shell commands in Perl

  use Fink::Command ':ALL';

  mv @src, $dest;
  cp @src, $dest;
  
  my $text = cat $file;
  my @text = cat $file;

  mkdir_p @dirs;
  rm_rf @dirs;
  rm_f @files;

  touch @files;

  chowname $user, @files;

  symlink_f $src, $dest;

Its a common tempation to write something like this:

    execute("rm -rf $dir");

Instead of relying on shell utilities, we can do this inside Perl. This module provides a set of Perl functions emulating common shell utilities.

No functions are exported by default, they are all optional. You can get all of them with

  use Fink::Command ':ALL';

Unless noted otherwise, functions set $! and return false on failure.

  mv $src,  $dest;
  mv @srcs, $destdir;

Like mv .

  cp $src,  $dest;
  cp @srcs, $destdir;

Like cp .

cat
```
  my $text = cat $file;
  my @text = cat $file;
```
Reads a file returning all the text in one lump or as a list of lines depending on context.

Returns undef on error, even in list context.
mkdir_p
```
  mkdir_p @dirs;
```
Like mkdir -p .

Due to an implementation quirk, $! is not set on failure.
rm_rf
```
  rm_rf @dirs;
```
Like rm -rf
rm_f
```
  rm_f @files;
```
Like rm -f
touch
```
  touch @files;
```
Like touch .
chowname
```
  chowname $user, @files;
  chowname "$user:$group", @files;
  chowname ":$group", @files;
```
Like chowname but the user/group specification is a bit simpler. Dot is not supported as a seperator.
symlink_f
```
  symlink_f $src, $dest;
```
Like ln -sf . Currently requires the full filename for $dest (not just target directory.
du_sk
```
  du_sk @dirs;
```
Like du -sk , though slower.

On success returns the disk usage of @dirs in kilobytes. This is not the sum of file-sizes, rather the total size of the blocks used. Thus it can change on a filesystem with support for sparse files, or an OS with a different block size.

On failure returns "Error: <description>".
_expand
```
  my @expanded_paths = _expand(@paths);
```
Expands a list of filepaths like the shell would.