File::Util
=========================

DESCRIPTION
File::Util provides a comprehensive toolbox of utilities to automate all
kinds of common tasks on file / directories.  Its purpose is to do so
in the most portable manner possible so that users of this module won't
have to worry about whether their programs will work on other OSes
and machines.


CHANGES IN LAST FEW RELEASES
(listed in reverse chronological order by date and subversion)

   3.21
      Mon May 21 18:22:11 CDT 2007
      Fixed solaris-specific bug in test suite causing a simple regular
      expression to fail.  Previous changes up to this point merit a public
      release, pending the fixing of afforementioned bug, hence this release.

   3.20_2
      Mon May 21 16:15:23 CDT 2007
      Fixed small but important incompatibility with some versions of
      Exception::Handler

   3.20_1
      Fri May 18 15:42:01 CDT 2007
      Improved error handling mechanism even more, and created 31 new test
      scenarios to make sure that any failure events are handled correctly.

      Fixed some small latent bugs, for example, corrected file handle
      reference verification error handling--checking for validity of
      file handle references.

   3.19
      Wed May 16 18:07:49 CDT 2007
      Documentation.  Documentation.  Documentation.  Small corrections and
      several enhancements.  More examples.

      Improved error-handling mechanism by adding cascading logic to prioritize
      fatality-handling rules of failed calls over the rules of the File::Util
      object, whether they be defaults or manually set up via File::Util::new()

   3.18
      Tue Feb 27 15:54:51 CST 2007
      Finished documentation for ALL methods.  Whew!  That was a lot of
      writing.  The documentation will continue to evolve.

      Implemented the --use-sysopen flag for File::Util::open_handle()
      and thereafter the following extra open modes for it (only valid if
      the --use-sysopen flag is used):
         rwcreate
         rwupdate
         rwclobber
         rwappend

      (See the documentation for more details about this new feature).

      Added new method File::Util::release_open_file() for the purpose
      of releasing file locks placed on file handles by the
      File::Util::open_file() method, that is, when file locking is
      NOT turned off.  If file locking is disabled by the user, this new
      method has no effect.


INSTALLATION
To install this module type the following:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install

On windows machines use nmake rather than make; those running cygwin don't have
to worry about this.  If you don't know what cygwin is, use nmake and check out
<URL: http://cygwin.com/> after you're done installing this module if you want
to find out.


DEPENDENCIES
This module requires these other modules and libraries:

   Class::OOorNO        v0.01_0 or better
   Exception::Handler   v1.00_0 or better


AUTHOR
   Tommy Butler <cpan@atrixnet.com>


COPYRIGHT
   Copyright (C) Tommy Butler 2001-2002, all rights reserved.


LICENCE

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