Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!rbj
From: rbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Rudeness on -l _
Message-ID: <124842@uunet.UU.NET>
Date: 7 Mar 91 03:41:48 GMT
Organization: UUNET Communications Services, Falls Church, VA
Lines: 18

I was just treated to what I consider a bogus error message:

	"You must supply explicit filename with -l"

The Book says (pg 85) "Likewise, -l _ will always be false
after a normal stat". Actually, tis fatal.

I am writing a recursive compare and remove script.
I only want to stat each file once. I need to know
what it is, so I was lstat'ing it, saving the results,
and later doing -f _, -d _, -l _.

It now looks like I'll have to -l it first, then do
-f _, -d _, etc later. I will also have to lstat(_),
as I need other info for optimizing equality tests.
-- 
		[rbj@uunet 1] stty sane
		unknown mode: sane