Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!chx400!pan!jw
From: jw@pan.UUCP (Jamie Watson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: How to zero a file
Message-ID: <891@pan.UUCP>
Date: 23 Dec 89 06:46:41 GMT
Reply-To: jw@pan.UUCP (Jamie Watson)
Organization: Adasoft AG, Solothurn, Switzerland
Lines: 11


What is the preferred way to zero a file in perl?  In shell scripts I
use "> filename", so in perl I can 'exec "> filename"', but it seems
to me that there should be a way to do this without using exec.

In a similar vein, what is the preferred way to copy a file?  I could
obviously just crank up 'exec "cp old new"', but again I wonder if there
is some "better" way to do this entirely within perl.  Copying a line at
a time, with "while () print" doesn't seem to me to be an ideal solution.

jw