Error trying to call find from perl

Question

use warnings;
use File::Find;

my $srceDir = "//mnt/Share_Drive/Verizon PM&T/Capture Files/";
opendir(DIR, $srceDir) or die "Can't open $srceDir: $!";
my @files = (find -type f -newermt "12 Feb 2013", $srceDir);
closedir(DIR);

I can run the find command with the -newermt option in Linux just fine but when I put it in the perl script I got the errors below, could you help? Thanks

String found where operator expected at ./queryAlm.pl line 11, near "newermt "12 Feb 2013""
  (Do you need to predeclare newermt?)
syntax error at ./queryAlm.pl line 11, near "newermt "12 Feb 2013""

Answer 1

The File::Find perl module has little if any to do with the find command. See perldoc File::Find for how to use it.

As jordanm points out, you can use find2perl to help you write that perl code, but please note that find2perl only recognises the standard find syntax, so typically not GNU extensions like -newermt. You'll have to write the perl code by your self (call stat() for the file and compare the mtime with POSIX::mktime(0,0,0,12,2,113)).

To run the find command, you don't need the File::Find module, you can simply do:

my $srceDir = "//mnt/Share_Drive/Verizon PM&T/Capture Files/";
my @find_cmd = ("find", $srceDir, "-type", "f", "-newermt", "12 Feb 2013", "-print0");

open FIND, "-|", @find_cmd;
$/ = "\0";
my @files = <FIND>;
my $ret = close FIND or warn $! ?
    "Error closing find pipe: $!" :
    "find exited with non-zero exit status: $?";