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File::Copy(3)


NAME

  File::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).  Trying to copy a file on top of
      itself is a fatal error.

      Note that passing in files as handles instead of names may lead to loss
      of information on some operating systems; it is recommended that you
      use file names whenever possible.	 Files are opened in binary mode
      where applicable.	 To get a consistent behaviour when copying 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 specified by the
      destination.

      If possible, move() will simply rename the file.	Otherwise, 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
      (possibly 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-specific attributes and file structure.  For Unix
  systems, this is equivalent to the simple "copy" routine, which doesn't
  preserve OS-specific attributes.  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".

  On Mac OS (Classic), "syscopy" calls "Mac::MoreFiles::FSpFileCopy", if
  available.

  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, typeglobs, 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 possibly 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
      associated 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 timestamps
      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 timestamps 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.


NOTES

  ·   On Mac OS (Classic), the path separator is ':', not '/', and the
      current directory is denoted as ':', not '.'. You should be careful
      about specifying relative pathnames. While a full path always begins
      with a volume name, a relative pathname should always begin with a ':'.
      If specifying a volume name only, a trailing ':' is required.

      E.g.

	copy("file1", "tmp");	     # creates the file 'tmp' in the current directory
	copy("file1", ":tmp:");	     # creates :tmp:file1
	copy("file1", ":tmp");	     # same as above
	copy("file1", "tmp");	     # same as above, if 'tmp' is a directory (but don't do
				     # that, since it may cause confusion, see example #1)
	copy("file1", "tmp:file1");  # error, since 'tmp:' is not a volume
	copy("file1", ":tmp:file1"); # ok, partial path
	copy("file1", "DataHD:");    # creates DataHD:file1

	move("MacintoshHD:fileA", "DataHD:fileB"); # moves (don't copies) files from one
						   # volume to another


AUTHOR

  File::Copy was written by Aaron Sherman <ajs@ajs.com> in 1995, and updated
  by Charles Bailey <bailey@newman.upenn.edu> in 1996.

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