File::Copy(3) Perl Programmers Reference Guide File::Copy(3)NAMEFile::Copy - Copy files or filehandles
SYNOPSIS
use File::Copy;
copy("file1","file2");
copy("Copy.pm",\*STDOUT);'
move("/dev1/fileA","/dev2/fileB");
use POSIX;
use File::Copy cp;
$n = FileHandle->new("/a/file","r");
cp($n,"x");'
DESCRIPTION
The File::Copy module provides two basic functions, "copy"
and "move", which are useful for getting the contents of a
file from one place to another.
The "copy" function takes two parameters: a file to
copy from and a file to copy to. Either argument may
be a string, a FileHandle reference or a FileHandle
glob. Obviously, if the first argument is a filehandle
of some sort, it will be read from, and if it is a
file name it will be opened for reading. Likewise, the
second argument will be written to (and created if
need be).
Note that passing in files as handles instead of names
may lead to loss of information on some operating sys
tems; it is recommended that you use file names when
ever possible. Files are opened in binary mode where
applicable. To get a consistent behaviour when copy
ing from a filehandle to a file, use "binmode" on the
filehandle.
An optional third parameter can be used to specify the
buffer size used for copying. This is the number of
bytes from the first file, that wil be held in memory
at any given time, before being written to the second
file. The default buffer size depends upon the file,
but will generally be the whole file (up to 2Mb), or
1k for filehandles that do not reference files (eg.
sockets).
You may use the syntax "use File::Copy "cp"" to get at
the "cp" alias for this function. The syntax is
exactly the same.
The "move" function also takes two parameters: the
current name and the intended name of the file to be
moved. If the destination already exists and is a
directory, and the source is not a directory, then the
source file will be renamed into the directory speci
fied by the destination.
If possible, move() will simply rename the file. Oth
erwise, it copies the file to the new location and
deletes the original. If an error occurs during this
copy-and-delete process, you may be left with a (pos
sibly partial) copy of the file under the destination
name.
You may use the "mv" alias for this function in the
same way that you may use the "cp" alias for "copy".
File::Copy also provides the "syscopy" routine, which
copies the file specified in the first parameter to the
file specified in the second parameter, preserving OS-spe
cific attributes and file structure. For Unix systems,
this is equivalent to the simple "copy" routine. For VMS
systems, this calls the "rmscopy" routine (see below).
For OS/2 systems, this calls the "syscopy" XSUB directly.
For Win32 systems, this calls "Win32::CopyFile".
Special behaviour if "syscopy" is defined (OS/2, VMS and
Win32)
If both arguments to "copy" are not file handles, then
"copy" will perform a "system copy" of the input file to a
new output file, in order to preserve file attributes,
indexed file structure, etc. The buffer size parameter is
ignored. If either argument to "copy" is a handle to an
opened file, then data is copied using Perl operators, and
no effort is made to preserve file attributes or record
structure.
The system copy routine may also be called directly under
VMS and OS/2 as "File::Copy::syscopy" (or under VMS as
"File::Copy::rmscopy", which is the routine that does the
actual work for syscopy).
rmscopy($from,$to[,$date_flag])
The first and second arguments may be strings, type
globs, typeglob references, or objects inheriting from
IO::Handle; they are used in all cases to obtain the
filespec of the input and output files, respectively.
The name and type of the input file are used as
defaults for the output file, if necessary.
A new version of the output file is always created,
which inherits the structure and RMS attributes of the
input file, except for owner and protections (and pos
sibly timestamps; see below). All data from the input
file is copied to the output file; if either of the
first two parameters to "rmscopy" is a file handle,
its position is unchanged. (Note that this means a
file handle pointing to the output file will be asso
ciated with an old version of that file after
"rmscopy" returns, not the newly created version.)
The third parameter is an integer flag, which tells
"rmscopy" how to handle timestamps. If it is < 0,
none of the input file's timestamps are propagated to
the output file. If it is > 0, then it is interpreted
as a bitmask: if bit 0 (the LSB) is set, then times
tamps other than the revision date are propagated; if
bit 1 is set, the revision date is propagated. If the
third parameter to "rmscopy" is 0, then it behaves
much like the DCL COPY command: if the name or type of
the output file was explicitly specified, then no
timestamps are propagated, but if they were taken
implicitly from the input filespec, then all times
tamps other than the revision date are propagated. If
this parameter is not supplied, it defaults to 0.
Like "copy", "rmscopy" returns 1 on success. If an
error occurs, it sets "$!", deletes the output file,
and returns 0.
RETURN
All functions return 1 on success, 0 on failure. $! will
be set if an error was encountered.
AUTHORFile::Copy was written by Aaron Sherman <ajs@ajs.com> in
1995, and updated by Charles Bailey <bailey@new_
man.upenn.edu> in 1996.
2001-03-03 perl v5.6.1 File::Copy(3)
