How do I set permissions on directories and files from Perl?

From perl you want to set the permissions on a file or directory.

The solution

There is a perl function called chmod. It can be called on files or directories. You can use it as follows:

    #!/usr/bin/perl
    use strict;
    use warnings;

    #
    # Chmod a file
    #
    my $filename = "test.txt";

    chmod 0600, $filename or die "Couldn't chmod $filename: $!";

    #
    # Chmod an existing directory
    #
    my $dir = "testchmod";
    chmod(0660, $dir) or die "Couldn't chmod $dir: $!";

    exit 0;

You can also use chmod on a list of files. Chmod returns the number of files that were modified, so you can tell if all the chmods were successful.

    #!/usr/bin/perl
    use strict;
    use warnings;

    #
    # Chmod a file
    #
    my @files = ("test.txt", "test2,txt", "test3.txt");

    my $res = chmod 0600, @files;

    print "Modified $res files\n";
    die $! if ($!);

    exit 0;

If two of the three files existed, the output of this program would be:

    Modified 2 files
    No such file or directory at ./test.pl line 12.

See also

    perldoc -f chmod