NAME

VERSION

SYNOPSIS

  use File::chdir;

  $CWD = "/foo/bar";     # now in /foo/bar
  {
      local $CWD = "/moo/baz";  # now in /moo/baz
      ...
  }

  # still in /foo/bar!

DESCRIPTION

This sucks.

File::chdir gives you an alternative, $CWD and @CWD. These two variables combine all the power of "chdir()", File::Spec and Cwd.

$CWD

    use File::chdir;
    $CWD = $dir;  # just like chdir($dir)!
    print $CWD;   # prints the current working directory

It can be localized, and it does the right thing.

    $CWD = "/foo";      # it's /foo out here.
    {
        local $CWD = "/bar";  # /bar in here
    }
    # still /foo out here!

$CWD always returns the absolute path in the native form for the operating system.

$CWD and normal "chdir()" work together just fine.

@CWD

  # Similar to chdir("/usr/local/src/perl")
  @CWD = qw(usr local src perl);

pop, push, shift, unshift and splice all work. pop and push are probably the most useful.

  pop @CWD;                 # same as chdir(File::Spec->updir)
  push @CWD, 'some_dir'     # same as chdir('some_dir')

@CWD and $CWD both work fine together.

*NOTE* Due to a perl bug you can't localize @CWD. See "CAVEATS" for a work around.

EXAMPLES

Here's $CWD instead of "chdir()":

    $CWD = 'foo';           # chdir('foo')

and now instead of Cwd.

    print $CWD;             # use Cwd;  print Cwd::abs_path

you can even do zsh style "cd foo bar"

    $CWD = '/usr/local/foo';
    $CWD =~ s/usr/var/;

if you want to localize that, make sure you get the parens right

    {
        (local $CWD) =~ s/usr/var/;
        ...
    }

It's most useful for writing polite subroutines which don't leave the program in some strange directory:

    sub foo {
        local $CWD = 'some/other/dir';
        ...do your work...
    }

which is much simpler than the equivalent:

    sub foo {
        use Cwd;
        my $orig_dir = Cwd::getcwd;
        chdir('some/other/dir');

        ...do your work...

        chdir($orig_dir);
    }

@CWD comes in handy when you want to start moving up and down the directory hierarchy in a cross-platform manner without having to use File::Spec.

    pop @CWD;                   # chdir(File::Spec->updir);
    push @CWD, 'some', 'dir'    # chdir(File::Spec->catdir(qw(some dir)));

You can easily change your parent directory:

    # chdir from /some/dir/bar/moo to /some/dir/foo/moo
    $CWD[-2] = 'foo';

CAVEATS

    {
        local $CWD;
        pop @CWD;
        ...
    }

    @CWD = qw/a b c d/;

    chdir 'a';
    chdir 'a/b';
    chdir 'a/b/c';
    chdir 'a/b/c/d';

NOTES

    my $working_dir = File::Spec->catdir( $CWD, "foo" );
    $CWD = $working_dir;
    doing_stuff_might_chdir();
    is( $CWD, $working_dir, "back to original working_dir?" );

Deleting the last item of @CWD will act like a pop. Deleting from the middle will throw an exception.

    delete @CWD[-1]; # OK
    delete @CWD[-2]; # Dies

What should %CWD do? Something with volumes?

    # chdir to C:\Program Files\Sierra\Half Life ?
    $CWD{C} = '\\Program Files\\Sierra\\Half Life';

DIAGNOSTICS

* ~Can't delete except at the end of @CWD~ * ~Failed to change directory to '$dir'~

HISTORY

Abigail and/or Bryan Warnock suggested the $CWD thing (Michael forgets which). They were right.

The "chdir()" override was eliminated in 0.04.

David became co-maintainer with 0.06_01 to fix some chronic Win32 path bugs.

As of 0.08, if changing $CWD or @CWD fails to change the directory, an error will be thrown.

SEE ALSO

SUPPORT

  git clone https://github.com/dagolden/File-chdir.git

AUTHORS

• David Golden <dagolden@cpan.org>
• Michael G. Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>

CONTRIBUTOR

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.