C:\>perldoc File::Find
NAME
    find - traverse a file tree

    finddepth - traverse a directory structure depth-first

SYNOPSIS
        use File::Find;
        find(\&wanted, '/foo', '/bar');
        sub wanted { ... }

        use File::Find;
        finddepth(\&wanted, '/foo', '/bar');
        sub wanted { ... }

        use File::Find;
        find({ wanted => \&process, follow => 1 }, '.');

DESCRIPTION
    The first argument to find() is either a hash reference describing the
    operations to be performed for each file, or a code reference.

    Here are the possible keys for the hash:

    "wanted"
       The value should be a code reference. This code reference is called
       *the wanted() function* below.

    "bydepth"
       Reports the name of a directory only AFTER all its entries have been
       reported. Entry point finddepth() is a shortcut for specifying "{
       bydepth =" 1 }> in the first argument of find().

    "preprocess"
       The value should be a code reference. This code reference is used to
       preprocess a directory; it is called after readdir() but before the
       loop that calls the wanted() function. It is called with a list of
       strings and is expected to return a list of strings. The code can be
       used to sort the strings alphabetically, numerically, or to filter
       out directory entries based on their name alone.

    "postprocess"
       The value should be a code reference. It is invoked just before
       leaving the current directory. It is called in void context with no
       arguments. The name of the current directory is in $File::Find::dir.
       This hook is handy for summarizing a directory, such as calculating
       its disk usage.

    "follow"
       Causes symbolic links to be followed. Since directory trees with
       symbolic links (followed) may contain files more than once and may
       even have cycles, a hash has to be built up with an entry for each
       file. This might be expensive both in space and time for a large
       directory tree. See *follow_fast* and *follow_skip* below. If either
       *follow* or *follow_fast* is in effect:

       *     It is guaranteed that an *lstat* has been called before the
             user's *wanted()* function is called. This enables fast file
             checks involving  _.

       *     There is a variable "$File::Find::fullname" which holds the
             absolute pathname of the file with all symbolic links resolved

    "follow_fast"
       This is similar to *follow* except that it may report some files more
       than once. It does detect cycles, however. Since only symbolic links
       have to be hashed, this is much cheaper both in space and time. If
       processing a file more than once (by the user's *wanted()* function)
       is worse than just taking time, the option *follow* should be used.

    "follow_skip"
       "follow_skip==1", which is the default, causes all files which are
       neither directories nor symbolic links to be ignored if they are
       about to be processed a second time. If a directory or a symbolic
       link are about to be processed a second time, File::Find dies.
       "follow_skip==0" causes File::Find to die if any file is about to be
       processed a second time. "follow_skip==2" causes File::Find to ignore
       any duplicate files and dirctories but to proceed normally otherwise.

    "no_chdir"
       Does not "chdir()" to each directory as it recurses. The wanted()
       function will need to be aware of this, of course. In this case, "$_"
       will be the same as "$File::Find::name".

    "untaint"
       If find is used in taint-mode (-T command line switch or if EUID !=
       UID or if EGID != GID) then internally directory names have to be
       untainted before they can be cd'ed to. Therefore they are checked
       against a regular expression *untaint_pattern*. Note that all names
       passed to the user's *wanted()* function are still tainted.

    "untaint_pattern"
       See above. This should be set using the "qr" quoting operator. The
       default is set to "qr|^([-+@\w./]+)$|". Note that the parantheses are
       vital.

    "untaint_skip"
       If set, directories (subtrees) which fail the *untaint_pattern* are
       skipped. The default is to 'die' in such a case.

    The wanted() function does whatever verifications you want.
    "$File::Find::dir" contains the current directory name, and "$_" the
    current filename within that directory. "$File::Find::name" contains the
    complete pathname to the file. You are chdir()'d to "$File::Find::dir"
    when the function is called, unless "no_chdir" was specified. When
    <follow> or <follow_fast> are in effect, there is also a
    "$File::Find::fullname". The function may set "$File::Find::prune" to
    prune the tree unless "bydepth" was specified. Unless "follow" or
    "follow_fast" is specified, for compatibility reasons (find.pl,
    find2perl) there are in addition the following globals available:
    "$File::Find::topdir", "$File::Find::topdev", "$File::Find::topino",
    "$File::Find::topmode" and "$File::Find::topnlink".

    This library is useful for the "find2perl" tool, which when fed,

        find2perl / -name .nfs\* -mtime +7 \
            -exec rm -f {} \; -o -fstype nfs -prune

    produces something like:

        sub wanted {
            /^\.nfs.*\z/s &&
            (($dev, $ino, $mode, $nlink, $uid, $gid) = lstat($_)) &&
            int(-M _) > 7 &&
            unlink($_)
            ||
            ($nlink || (($dev, $ino, $mode, $nlink, $uid, $gid) = lstat($_))) &&
            $dev < 0 &&
            ($File::Find::prune = 1);
        }

    Set the variable "$File::Find::dont_use_nlink" if you're using AFS,
    since AFS cheats.

    Here's another interesting wanted function. It will find all symlinks
    that don't resolve:

        sub wanted {
             -l && !-e && print "bogus link: $File::Find::name\n";
        }

    See also the script "pfind" on CPAN for a nice application of this
    module.

CAVEAT
    Be aware that the option to follow symbolic links can be dangerous.
    Depending on the structure of the directory tree (including symbolic
    links to directories) you might traverse a given (physical) directory
    more than once (only if "follow_fast" is in effect). Furthermore,
    deleting or changing files in a symbolically linked directory might
    cause very unpleasant surprises, since you delete or change files in an
    unknown directory.


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