How do I create and append files with variable paths in Perl? - perl

Question

I'm working my way up towards creating a script that will create image galleries for me.
When I run what I have it tells me
No such file or directory at photographycreate line 16.
------------
(program exited with code: 2)
Here is the code that I've gotten so far.
#!/etc/perl -w
#CHANGE THIS
$filecategory = "cooking";
$filenumber = 0;
#$filename = "photography";
$imagedirectory = "\"/media/New Volume/Programming/kai product/media/photography/".$filecategory."/images/\"";
$galleryfile = "\"/media/New Volume/Programming/kai product/pages/".$filenumber."_".$filecategory."_gallery.html\"";
#imagelocation = <$imagedirectory/*>; #*/
$filecount = #imagelocation;
while($filenumber < 3) {
open GALLERY, "+>", $galleryfile or die $!;
print GALLERY ($filecount."\n");
print GALLERY ($imagedirectory."\n");
print GALLERY ($galleryfile."\n");
close GALLERY;
++$filenumber;
}
What I want it to do is create the file, open it, write stuff to it, and then close/save it. How can I, using what I have, do this?
Here is the fix:
#!/etc/perl -w
use Fcntl; #The Module
use strict;
#CHANGE THIS
my $filecategory = "cooking";
my $filenumber = 0;
my $imagedirectory = "\"/media/New Volume/Programming/kaiproduct/media/photography/".$filecategory."/images/\"";
my $galleryfile = "/media/New Volume/Programming/kaiproduct/pages/".$filenumber."_".$filecategory."_gallery.html";
my #imagelocation = <$imagedirectory/*>; #*/
my $filecount = #imagelocation;
while($filenumber < 3)
{
open GALLERY, "+>", $galleryfile or die $!;
print (GALLERY $filecount."\n");
print (GALLERY $imagedirectory."\n");
print (GALLERY $galleryfile."\n");
close GALLERY;
++$filenumber;
}

Answer 1

I think the problem is here:
$imagedirectory = "\"/media/New Volume/Programming/kai product/media/photography/".$filecategory."/images/\"";
$galleryfile = "\"/media/New Volume/Programming/kai product/pages/".$filenumber."_".$filecategory."_gallery.html\"";
Specifically, each of these strings starts with "\" and ends with \"", which means your files and folders will be surrounded with double quotes. So Perl isn't trying to open /media/New Volume/etc..., but "/media/New Volume/etc...", which doesn't exist because there is no directory called ". You're over-quoting.
One thing you can (and should always) do to make your code better is to use strict;. I see you already have use warnings; at the top there, which is good, but using both strict and warnings will make your code a lot safer and nicer to look at.

Answer 2

IMNHO, the real answer is to use File::Spec and write things a bit clearer:
use File::Spec::Functions qw( catfile );
# ...
my $root = "/media/New Volume/Programming/kai product";
my $imagedirectory = catfile($root,
'photography',
$filecategory,
'images',
);
my $galleryfile = catfile($root,
'pages',
"${filenumber}_${filecategory}_gallery.html",
);
In addition, it is a good idea to observe good habits, especially since you are just learning Perl:
Always put:
use strict;
use warnings;
as the first thing in your program.
Use lexical filehandles rather than bareword filehandles (which are package global):
open my $gallery, '+>', $galleryfile
or die "Cannot open '$galleryfile': $!;
and include the name of the file in the error message.
Finally, I like File::Slurp's append_file:
append_file $gallery_file, [
map { "$_\n" } ( $filecount, $imagedirectory, $galleryfile )
];
Here is a revised version of your program:
#!/etc/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Spec::Functions qw( catfile );
my $root = "/media/New Volume/Programming/kai product";
my $filecategory = "cooking";
my $imagedirectory = catfile($root,
'photography',
$filecategory,
'images',
);
my #imagelocation = read_dir $imagedirectory;
for my $filenumber ( 0 .. 2 ) {
my $galleryfile = catfile($root, 'pages',
"${filenumber}_${filecategory}_gallery.html",
);
append_file $gallery_file, [
map { "$_\n" } (
scalar #imagelocation, $imagedirectory, $galleryfile,
)];
}