debian man page for path::class::file::stat

Path::Class::File::Stat(3pm)				User Contributed Perl Documentation			      Path::Class::File::Stat(3pm)

NAME
       Path::Class::File::Stat - cache and compare stat() calls on a Path::Class::File object

SYNOPSIS
	 use Path::Class::File::Stat;
	 my $file = Path::Class::File::Stat->new('path','to','file');

	 # $file has all the magic of Path::Class::File

	 # sometime later
	 if ($file->changed)
	 {
	   # do something provocative
	 }

DESCRIPTION
       Path::Class::File::Stat is a simple extension of Path::Class::File.  Path::Class::File::Stat is useful in long-running programs (as under
       mod_perl) where you might have a file handle opened and want to check if the underlying file has changed.

METHODS
       Path::Class::File::Stat extends Path::Class::File objects in the following ways.

   use_md5
       Calling this method will attempt to load Digest::MD5 and use that instead of stat() for creating file signatures. This is similar to how
       File::Modified works.

   changed
       Returns the previously cached File::stat object if the file's device number and inode number have changed, or if the modification time or
       size has changed.

       Returns 0 (false) otherwise.

       While File::Modified uses a MD5 signature of the stat() of a file to determine if the file has changed, changed() uses a simpler (and
       probably more naive) algorithm. If you need a more sophisticated way of determining if a file has changed, use the restat() method and
       compare the cached File::stat object it returns with the current File::stat object.

       Example of your own changed() logic:

	my $oldstat = $file->restat;
	my $newstat = $file->stat;
	# compare $oldstat and $newstat any way you like

       Or just use File::Modified instead.

   restat
       Re-cache the File::stat object in the Path::Class::File::Stat object. Returns the previously cached File::stat object.

       The changed() method calls this method internally if changed() is going to return true.

SEE ALSO
       Path::Class, Path::Class::File, File::Signature, File::Modified

AUTHOR
       Peter Karman, <karman@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
       Copyright (C) 2006 by Peter Karman

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.14.2							    2012-01-28					      Path::Class::File::Stat(3pm)