Revision history for Perl extension File::Util.pm

4.130425 Mon Feb 11 15:37:47 CST 2013

 - TRIAL version.  Released to CPAN after taking int account some changes
   recommended by a few of the good folks at perlmonks, namely some method
   name changes.  The old method names still work fine and are completely
   supported.  The changes are shown below:
     +-----------+-------------+
     | OLD NAME  | NEW NAME    |
     +-----------+-------------+
     | can_read  | is_readable |
     | can_write | is_writable |
     | readlimit | read_limit  |
     | isbin     | is_bin      |
     +-----------+-------------+

 - Some changes to the POD documentation have been made as well, both to
   reflect the name changes as well as to clean things up even more in
   terms of clarity and better formatting.

 - Some test updates were needed to reflect the use of the new method names

4.130420 Sun Feb 10 21:45:05 CST 2013

 - TRIAL version. Released to CPAN for those who may want to test drive
   it.  The enhancements, improvements, feature additions, and bug fixes
   in this release are far to great to be enumerated here in the changes
   file.  A git repository was set up for File::Util last December, and
   the commit logs will tell the full story of all changes.

 - The commit log can be read here:
   https://github.com/tommybutler/file-util/commits/master

 - A summary of new things would include the newer, more modern-style
   call syntax, user-definable custom error handlers, list_dir()
   callbacks plus advanced regular expression filtering features, much
   more comprehensive documentation including a manual and a cookbook,
   performance optimizations, the ability to enable/disable the
   verbose diagnostics that have hitherto been the default error
   mechanism, and much more.  The quality of the distribution has also
   been greatly improved.

 - All new features are covered at length in the documentation, so
   anything you don't see here will be mentioned and throughly covered
   there.  Full backward-compatibility with the 3.x series feature-set
   and syntax has been preserved

3.39 Sun Jan  6 15:54:10 CST 2013

 - Significant improvements in test suite, but most importantly
   eliminated a bug found in make_dir() where absolute paths caused
   problems on some platforms.

 - Fixed a bug that caused testing to fail on Solaris

3.38 Fri Jan  4 12:26:53 CST 2013

 - Have to abandon AutoLoader.  It is simply causing too many problems
   to continue using it on any level.

4.37 Thu Jan  3 12:58:55 CST 2013

 - Renamed atomize() to atomize_path() before anyone starts to use it;
   the original name is not ideal and not descriptive of what it does.

3.36 Thu Jan  3 11:38:00 CST 2013

 - breakfix, Dist::Zilla failed to detect long-time prereq
   Exception::Handler.  This unfortunate problem broke v3.33 thru 3.35
   which were taken down in short order.

3.33 Mon Dec 31 23:37:40 CST 2012

 - Moves everything out of autoloader that was previously in autoloader,
   with the exception of the assisted error handling.  In light of modern
   computing, the optimizations are so minimal as to be negligible now.
   There's more benefit to be had by having all methods available
   at compile time.

 - Documentation updates.

 - Code cleanups.  Package cleanup.  Preparations to add new features.

 - Working to make the distribution compliant with Fedora and Debian
   packaging standards.  File::Util already has a maintained package for
   Ubuntu.

3.32 Wed Nov 28 21:42:59 CST 2012

 - Emergency break fix for abs paths on *nix which came about as a
   regression bug introduced when abs paths were fixed for windows
   platforms.

3.31 Tue Nov 20 16:33:10 CST 2012

 - Adds new method: File::Util::atomize() which explodes a fully-qualified
   filename into it's root, path, and filename... which was necessary
   to squish the long-standing bug in fully-qualified file names on
   MS Windows... Also, the '--rpattern=^pat$' flag should works recursively
   for you in File::Util::list_dir(), in order to provide you with patterns
   that are applied at every level in your file tree, while preserving the
   current behavior of the '--pattern=^pat$' flag, which is not applied
   recursively.  Another bug bites the dust.

 - Fixes CPAN RT# 46368 and 64775, respectively

 - Lots of code cleanup, and more documentation forthcoming in next release
   will be here very soon, primarily to document the small additions here
   and also to clean up the documentation itslef (particularly the code
   examples which need style-fixes).  This is a stable release.

3.30_003 Thu Nov 15 17:59:38 CST 2012

 - Development release.  BETA.  Do not use for production!  This release
   introduces new code optimizations and extensive cleanup.  The previously
   required module Class::OOorNO has been removed from the prerequisites
   and any methods that it exported are no longer available for import to
   your namespace(s).  This shouldn't be a problem though, because that
   module was almost never used at all, and no one ever even knew you
   could get its methods from File::Util anyway.  Onward and upward, we're
   inching slowly but surely toward 3.31 final.

 - There's been a lot of code refactoring and regex optimization.  A lot
   of planning and work will be going into 3.30, and this is the first
   release candidate.

3.30_001 Mon Nov 12 18:00:16 CST 2012

 - Development release.  BETA.  Do not use for production!  This release
   attempts to fix MS Windows-related problems, and introduces bugfixes
   for CPAN RT# 46368 and 67399.  As a result, the test suite has been
   slightly improved (and will continue to improve).

 - There's been a lot of code refactoring and regex optimization.  A lot
   of planning and work will be going into 3.30, and this is the first
   release candidate.

2.29 Wed Oct 17 09:38:36 CDT 2012

 - Fixed bug where list_dir() did not continue to recurse if it encountered
   an error while running with the --fatals-as-warning flag.  If running
   in default mode, it is normal behavior for File::Util to abort execution
   on error, but when running with --fatals-as-warning flag, such errors
   should not have caused recursion to fail.  (CPAN RT# 52319)

 - Changed the brackets surrounding error messages to "<<" and ">>" so that
   the glyphs display in most terminals.

 - Modified/updated documentation and test suite to accomodate these new
   changes.

2.28 Sat Sep 29 17:38:47 CDT 2012

 - Adding a patch to fix breakage under Perl 5.17 (CPAN RT#31013)

 - Fix spelling error in documentation and code comments (CPAN RT# #64854)

2.27 Sat Dec  6 13:10:00 CST 2008

 - Fixed a bug that caused root directories using Micro$oft filesystem
   notation to be mis-read when using the '--dirs-only' flag for
   File::Util::list_dir()

3.26 Tue Dec  2 20:07:09 CST 2008

 - Added to test suite in order to avoid errant test failures
   when flock'ing on solaris.  This is a big deal, since the point of
   File::Util is to be easy, and portable!

 - Added some yet more extra examples in the documentation.

3.25 Mon Dec 1 15:11:20 CST 2008

 - Fixed a bug in File::Util::touch()

 - Added some extra examples and corrected one minor error in the
   documentation.

3.24 Wed May 23 16:27:20 CDT 2007

 - Added method File::Util::last_changed (get inode change time for a file)

 - Added method File::Util::touch (works like *nix touch command)

 - Both touch and last_changed are autoloaded methods

 - Applied patch from S. Muskiewicz that fixes the File::Util::last_modified
   method that was using a similar but incorrect "-" file test operator.

3.23 Fri Feb 15 07:34:29 CST 2008

 - No major code changes.  Small bug fixes--

 - Corrected syntax on package makefile that causes warnings to be
   generated in cases of older Perl versions. Also corrected a problem
   in the documentation where the section "Get the path preceeding a
   file name" was showing incorrect information.

3.22 Wed May 23 16:27:20 CDT 2007

 - Fixed windows-specific bugs associated with the handling of newlines
   and directory path separators.  Now compatible with Strawberry Perl
   and once again Active$tate Perl for MSWin*.

3.21 Mon May 21 18:22:11 CDT 2007

 - Fixed solaris-specific bug in test suite causing a simple regular
   expression to fail.  Previous changes up to this point merit a public
   release, pending the fixing of afforementioned bug, hence this release.

3.20_2 Mon May 21 16:15:23 CDT 2007

 - Fixed small but important incompatibility with some versions of
   Exception::Handler

3.20_1 Fri May 18 15:42:01 CDT 2007

 - Improved error handling mechanism even more, and created 31 new test
   scenarios to make sure that any failure events are handled correctly.

 - Fixed some small latent bugs, for example, corrected file handle
   reference verification error handling--checking for validity of
   file handle references.

3.19 Wed May 16 18:07:49 CDT 2007

 - Documentation.  Documentation.  Documentation.  Small corrections and
   several enhancements.  More examples.

 - Improved error-handling mechanism by adding cascading logic to prioritize
   fatality-handling rules of failed calls over the rules of the File::Util
   object, whether they be defaults or manually set up via File::Util::new()

3.18 Tue Feb 27 15:54:51 CST 2007

 - Finished documentation for ALL methods.  Whew!  That was a lot of
   writing.  The documentation will continue to evolve.

 - Implemented the --use-sysopen flag for File::Util::open_handle()
   and thereafter the following extra open modes for it (only valid if
   the --use-sysopen flag is used):
      rwcreate
      rwupdate
      rwclobber
      rwappend

   (See the documentation for more details about this new feature).

 - Added new method File::Util::release_open_file() for the purpose
   of releasing file locks placed on file handles by the
   File::Util::open_file() method, that is, when file locking is
   NOT turned off.  If file locking is disabled by the user, this new
   method has no effect.

3.17 2007/02/26

 - Developer's releases (testing); not released to the public.

3.16 Tue Feb 20 14:16:45 CST 2007

 - Fixed problem with method File::Util::make_dir() when used with
   absolute pathnames (path names starting with "/", for example).

 - Fixed documentation error concerning the File::Util::list_dir method,
   specifically regarding the "--pattern" option flag.

 - Method File::Util::make_dir() now enforces the policy of failing when
   asked to create a directory that already exists as a file of any kind.
   Use the "--if-not-exists" flag if you are counting on the old behavior
   or if you want to create directories which could possibly exist already.

 - More documentation added.

3.15 Fri Dec 22 14:12:45 CST 2006

 - Fixed broken test suite that was causing `make test` to fail falsely.

 - Revisited documentation, adding a little, and various small improvements.

3.14_8 Thu Dec 14 20:13:03 CST 2006

 - Fixed some error messages to be more clear.  Tweaked the
   File::Util::readlimit() method to provide better error messages if
   called incorrectly.  Modified File::Util::make_dir() to include
   the --if-not-exists option.

 - More documentation added for various methods whose documentation had
   yet to be written.

 - Fixed a broken test case in "make test" that was causing it to fail
   falsely.

 - Releasing this version as an official release and NOT a developer's
   release only.

3.14_7 Sat Jan 31 13:36:24 CST 2004

 - Changes to method File::Util::flock_rules() to output helpful error
   message if specification of invalid file locking policy attempted.

 - flock_rules parameter for File::Util::new() constructor method no
   longer accepted or recognized in the interest of speed and efficiency.
   If you want to change the default flock rules for the File::Util object,
   then call File::Util::flock_rules() with your desired ruleset as
   specified in the documentation for this method.

 - Changed default max_dives number to 1000.  (See documentation for the
   File::Util::max_dives() method.)

 - Much more documentation added for various methods whose documentation
   had yet to be written.

3.14_6 Mon Sep 22 11:10:46 CDT 2003

 - Changes to methods File::Util::list_dir() and
   File::Util::escape_filename() increase efficiency and fix some bugs.
   Both methods retain the same interface and return values in the same
   manner.

 - Added new method File::Util::return_path() (see documentation).

 - Method File::Util::last_mod changed to File::Util::last_modified for
   clarity, better readability, and consistency with other similar methods
   in the File::Util namespace. (eg- File::Util::last_access, etc)

 - Added the following methods to @EXPORT_OK
      File::Util::return_path()
      File::Util::created()
      File::Util::last_access()
      File::Util::last_modified()

 - Much more documentation added.  Test suite revisited to reflect changes
   to the methods mentioned above.

3.14_2 2003/01/14

 - Much more documentation added.  Various methods slightly altered to stay
   in keeping with the docs and with standard conventions.  Test suite
   revisited somewhat.

3.14_1 2003/01/02

 - Added a substantial amount of new documentation.  Spelling errors in
   documentation files corrected.

 - Previously available method, File::Util::os(), has been dropped from the
   namespace and is no longer part of the module.

 - Method File::Util::file_type() no longer includes the 'tty' keyword among
   its list of recognized file types, as the native Perl file test for
   divining a TTY file can only be used on open file handles.

 - The keywords returned by this method are all upper case strings as of
   version 3.13_9, though the release notes for that version errantly did
   not include this statement.  The list of keywords otherwise remains
   unchanged:
      PLAIN       TEXT
      BINARY      DIRECTORY
      SYMLINK     PIPE
      SOCKET      BLOCK
      CHARACTER

3.14_0 2002/12/27

 - File::Util no longer @ISA Handy::Dandy, and no longer includes it
   as a prerequisite dependency.  Added a little more documentation,
   but it has a _long_ way to go as yet.

3.13_9 2002/12/23

 - A few small changes; no longer lists Handy::Dandy::TimeTools as a
   prerequisite dependency.

3.13_8 2002/12/22

 - Method File::Util::file_type() now returns a list instead of a single
   string of concatenated keyword substrings, the file type keywords being:
      plain       text
      binary      directory
      symlink     pipe
      socket      block
      character   tty

 - Methods File::Util::load_file() and File::Util::open_handle() both will
   truly guarantee the uniqueness of the underlying file handle which is
   auto-generated, whereas before measures to achieve the uniqueness of
   the file handles were taken, but not verified.

 - POD documentation got a big update.

3.13_7 2002/12/6

 - Almost ready for CPAN!

 - License changed from the GNU LGPL to Perl's own licensing scheme.

 - Various tweaks to compile-time sequences.

 - Previously subroutines, SL and NL are now constants.  This makes them
   easier to use when importing them to your main program.  Instead of
   having to type "print('foo' . NL . NL)", you can type the more intuitive
   "print('foo' . NL x 2)".  The same applies for SL, though it's not likely
   you'll be wanting to print out more than one SL character in sequence.
   This shouldn't break previous usage of these exported names.

 - Small reference material section appended to the general documentation
   file contained in 'docs-basic.txt' (part of this distribution)

3.13_4 2002/11/14

 - Got rid of all variables in @EXPORT_OK, namely:
      $OS
      $EBCDIC
      $NL
      $SL

 - I wanted to export only methods, seeing as exporting variables just isn't
   right, no matter how convenient it might be.  There are two new methods,
   and they are both autoloaded, namely:
      File::Util::os()
      File::Util::ebcdic()

 - These two methods take no arguments, and return only the value of the
   previously EXPORT_OK'ed "$OS" and "$EBCDIC"

 - Added more thorough testing to distribution tests lineup, and an
   additional set of tests in an automated "empty subclass test" of the
   modules native methods and all those it inherits from its ancestral
   classes.

 - More flock() related tweaking in private methods that implement
   File::Util's automatic, transparent file locking mechanism.

3.13_3 2002/11/13

 - Slightly optimized recursive directory listing features of package method
   File::Util::list_dir() and moved less-used method File::Util::load_dir()
   to AUTOLOAD.

 - Got rid of stupid method File::Util::EB which was previously
   used for error bracketing around dynamic values quoted in error messages;
   this has nothing to do with file handling -the purpose of this module.

 - Global vars $AUTOLOAD and $ATL are gone, since moving to the use of Perl's
   native AUTOLOAD extension from the old autoloading mechanism.

 - Added/removed functionality tests in the distribution installer according
   to these changes.

3.13_1 2002/11/13

 - Fixed problem that caused File::Util to not recognize its set flock
   usage policy, and flock failthrough rule set when either was manually
   set during runtime.  Added more flock tests to distribution test scripts.

3.13_1 2002/11/4

 - Further preparations made to ready the module for PAUSE upload.

3.13_0 2002/11/01

 - Method 'list_dir()' now recognizes a new option, '--ignore-case'.  When
   this option is included among the other arguments you pass in, the list
   of items returned will be sorted alphabetically from A to Z without
   respect to character case.

 - Accordingly, when the '--ignore-case' option is used the contents of
   a directory that would normally appear ordered like the items in
   Example A would instead appear ordered like the items in the order of
   Example B.

      Example A. (default list order of directory contents)
         Changes   COPYING   MANIFEST   Makefile.PL   README   test.pl


      Example B. (case insensitive order)
         COPYING   Changes   Makefile.PL   MANIFEST   README   test.pl

3.12_9 2002/10/27

 - Various places where warnings were surfacing undesirably have been
   corrected.  General preparations made to upload File::Util to PAUSE and
   ultimately be included in the CPAN.

3.12_7 2002/10/02

 - Method 'list_dir_a()' no longer suffixes directory items with the
   system path separator by force.

3.12_6 2002/10/04

 - Fixed serious problem with flock() wrapper which was previously not
   working at all when global setting '--fatals-as-status' or global
   setting '--fatals-as-warning' were used.  An upgrade to the present
   release of File::Util from versions predating this release (3.12_6) is
   seriously recommended!

3.12_5 2002/10/01

 - More performance improvements.

 - New argument flags recognized by method 'new':
      '--fatals-as-warning'   The new File::Util object will CORE::warn()
                              about otherwise fatal errors instead of
                              failing and exiting the process.

      '--fatals-as-status'    The new File::Util object will return(undef)
                              to method calls that would otherwise cause
                              fatal errors.

 - Method 'write_file' now recognizes the argument flag,
   '--empty-writes-OK', as an alternative means of allowing the
   creation of empty files without reaping a nasty fatal error.  Up
   until now, setting $File::Util::empty_writes to a true value was the
   only way to accomplish this.

3.12_4 2002/09/23

 - Fixed 'deep recursion' problem in AUTOLOAD

3.12_3 2002/09/23

 - Added AUTOLOAD and moved lots of methods away into space.  They get
   AUTOLOAD-ed when needed, but not compiled as routines in the module.
   This greatly improves compile-time and run-time performance now.

 - Got rid of methods 'get()' and 'set()'; they're largely useless.

 - Got rid of variable '$File::Util::canhackit'; no longer used.

3.12_2 2002/09/11

 - Moved to OOorNO interface design in order to provide both an Object-
   Oriented and a Procedural (non-Object-Oriented) programming style
   interface to File::Util.

1.10 2002/03/14

 - Constants are now class attributes independent of the constructor method.
   File::Util objects should always get these constants regardless.

 - Constants and OS identification extended upon code from CGI.pm v.2.78
   (go Lincoln, it's your birthday, get busy...) as such, File::Util got path
   separator help to better support a wider variety of platforms.

 - Additionally, constants contributed to a major overhaul of how File::Util
   handles newlines.

1.09 2002/03/14

 - Error messages got their own place as predefined key-value pairs in an
   anonymous hash independent of any class methods.  eg-they are committed to
   memory at compile time for speedy destruction of intentionally halted
   processes.

1.07 2002/02/09

 - new method: File::Util::open_handle.  This method lets user pass a
   typeglob reference (eg- *TYPG) and in return the user will get back a new
   file handle which is opened to the filename of their specifications.

1.06 2002/02/05

 - Fixed a bug in File::Util::stamp() which made times during the hour of
   12:00 PM appear with the 'AM' suffix rather than the correct 'PM suffix.

 - Added a new format type to File::Util::stamp() called 'file' or 'filename'
   which returns a timestamp suitable for placing into the name of a file
   in order to archive old files or versions of code with a time/date stamp
   embedded into the filename for easy lookup.

1.05 2001/12/05

 - Added a few more methods of the same nature as File::Util::size().  Passing
   in a format keyword argument returns a formatted timestamp.  Format
   keywords described in detail within the overview entry for previous
   version 1.02.  Now an overview of new methods:

 - File::Util::created([filename][format])

      returns the creation time of the file in seconds since the epoch.  The
      value returned is then passed back in the same format as the value
      returned from a call to Perl's built-in function: time()

      consequently, the value returned is suitable for feeding to
      localtime, or any private methods and functions expecting the same
      type of input.

      As such, a call to this method on a file which was created at:
      Thursday, December 6, 2001,  4:27:57 PM
   ...would return the value: 1007684877

 - File::Util::last_mod([filename][format])

      Returns the last modified time of the file you pass to it in seconds
      since the epoch.  Just as with the new created() method described
      above, the value returned comes in the same format as the value
      returned from a call to time(), and is therefore suitable for feeding
      to localtime() or any other private function or method expecting input
      of the same type.

      As such, a call to this method on a file which was last modified at:
      Sunday, December 2, 2001, 12:05:21 AM
   ...would return the value: 1007280321

 - File::Util::last_access([filename][format])

      Same as the two previously described methods, only this method returns
      the number of seconds since the epoch to the time when the specified
      file was last accessed.

      As such, a call to this method on a file which was last accessed at:
      Thursday, December 6, 2001, 12:00:00 AM
      ...would return the value: 1007625600

1.04 2001/12/05

 - Fixed some of the checks on files for existence, added the
   File::Util::file_size([filename]) method which returns the size of the
   filename you pass as the only argument.

1.03 2001/11/29

 - Re-visited the time/date methods to work out a bug which was causing file
   creation and last-modified times to be returned with incorrect values.

1.02 2001/11/27

 - More directory listing options.  Method File::Util::stamp() now takes
   optional format keyword argument; it lets you choose between different
   output formats for the returned time stamp.  Format keywords are thus:

      --short                 5/15/02, 4:22 pm
      --formal                Saturday, June 15, 2002, 4:22 pm
      --long                  same as '--formal'
      --succinct              Sat 5/15/02 16:22:43
      --ISO                   Sat, 15 Jun 2002 16.22.43 GMT
      --filename              -June-15-2002-16.22.43
      --file                  same as '--filename'
      --mdy                   5/15/02
      --hm                    4:22 pm
      --hms                   4:22:43 pm
      --24hms                 16:22:43
      --dayofmonth            15
      --dayofyear             134 (1 - 365)
      --dayofweek             Saturday
      --dayofweek, --num      7
      --month                 June
      --month, --num          6
      --year                  2002
      --shortyear             02
      --minute                22
      --hour                  16 (0 - 24)
      --second                43

1.01 2001/11/21

 - All methods now include very detailed error messages and a stack trace
   to help quickly track down mistakes.  You can fix mistakes now without
   having to decipher some cryptic error message which no one can understand
   and whose origin one can guess  :o(

1.00 2001/9/23

 - Initial release of File::Util.pm
