File::Copy man page on BSDi

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File::Copy(3)	 Perl Programmers Reference Guide   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;

	       $n=FileHandle->new("/dev/null","r");
	       cp($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.

       o   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).

	   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.

       o   The move function also takes two parameters: the
	   current name and the intended name of the file to be

16/Sep/1999	       perl 5.005, patch 03			1

File::Copy(3)	 Perl Programmers Reference Guide   File::Copy(3)

	   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.  For VMS systems,
       this calls the rmscopy routine (see below).  For OS/2
       systems, this calls the syscopy XSUB directly.

       Special behaviour if syscopy is defined (VMS and OS/2)

       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

16/Sep/1999	       perl 5.005, patch 03			2

File::Copy(3)	 Perl Programmers Reference Guide   File::Copy(3)

	   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.

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

16/Sep/1999	       perl 5.005, patch 03			3

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