From: pharrington <xenogenesis@...>
Date: 2010-01-09T07:00:05+09:00
Subject: Re: File and Dir class problems

On Jan 8, 4:25 pm, Spencer Rogers <spencerevanrog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm running into some problems when renaming and deleting files through
> ruby.  Originally I built a function to rename certain directories.
> However when renaming a directory that has folders, files, and
> subfolders inside, I get the ENOTEMPTY "Directory Not Empty" error -
> even if the directory being renamed is the only directory inside the
> parent folder.
>
> In order to by-pass this problem I decided to program it manually using
> a recursive copy and then a recursive delete.  However when I do the
> recursive delete, I get the same error for folders that have subfolders
> and files inside (and I am deleting all sub-folders/files first before
> deleting the parent folder, but the parent folder is the one throwing
> the error!).
>
> I don't get it.  It almost seems as though the commands are executing
> too fast - before the file system has time to recognize that the folders
> are empty.
>
> This is driving me absolutely bonkers, so if there is anyone that has
> experienced the same thing or has some suggestions, I would greatly
> appreciate it!
>
> For reference, here is the code I used for the recursive delete:
> The "Me" folder contains several folders + subfolders and several files.
> So, for example:
>
> /Me/
> - /fullsize/
>      - /folder2/
>      - image.png
>      - image 2.png
> - /scaled/
>      - image3.png
>      - simpsoneatsdonuts.png
>
> etc.
>
> path = "/Users/eagle/Desktop/Me/"
>
> files = Array.new
> everything = Array.new
>
> # get all the files
> files << Dir.glob(path + "**/**.*")
> # get all files/folders
> everything << Dir.glob(path + "**/**/")
>
> files.flatten!
> everything.flatten!
>
> # get the folders
> folders = everything - files
> # make sure sub-directories appear before parent directories
> folders.reverse!
>
> # loop through each file and delete
> files.each {|file|
>   puts file
>   File.delete(file)
>   }
>
>   p "-----------"
>
> # loop through each directory and delete
> folders.each {|f|
>   puts f
>   Dir.delete(f)
>   }
>
> # now delete the base folder
> Dir.delete(path)
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Also, files << Dir.glob(path + "**/**.*")  does not glob the list of
files; it globs the list of filesystem entries that have a "."
somewhere other than the beginning of the name. This is very different
from the complete list of files, and nothing at all stops a directory
name from containing a "."

In a different scenario, when you actually do need to test if a given
file name is a file or a directory, use File.file? or File.directory?

stdlib is a prettttty nice thing to be acquainted with.