Back To Basics: Getting File Information Using Perl's Stat Function

[ Thanks to Mike Golvach for this link. ]

"Today we're going to take a brief introductory look at Perl's stat() function and how you can use it to extract lots of useful information from files, directories, etc (actually, everything in Linux/Unix is a "file" of a certain type). It's incredibly easy to use and, even if you've never used Perl before, very easy to implement. If you're still stuck at the Shebang line in point of reference to Perl/shell scripting, check out that post, as we hope it provides a good base for one of the things you're most likely to find in a Perl or shell script. It also goes beyond just scripting and attacks some other basic concepts.

"Here's a very simple Perl script (which, as demonstrated, can be written on the command line as well) that will let you know the user id and group id associated with a particular file. We won't be exploring stat() completely in this post. just enough to get you started and comfortable (you could get the same information by running "ls -l" instead of just "ls," but that would defeat the purpose, right? ;):"

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