On Wed, Feb 13, 2002 at 05:20:38PM -0500, zentara wrote: > Ok, I can understand that because 33088 = oct(100500) > but given the octal number 33088 what function do I use > to convert it to 100500? In other words what is the > procedure to do octal to decimal conversion?
You have it backwards. Octal 100500 is 33088 in decimal. You just did the conversion with the oct operator. > Also, I thought that the 0500 style of given file permissions > IS octal. It is. > So the docs tell me to do a chmod like this with octal values: > chmod 0500, file Which works. > but in my program I'm using 33088 as the octal value? No, you're using 33088 as the decimal value. chmod takes two or more arguments; the numerical mode, and a list of files. The number can be in any representation you like. In the case of chmod(0500, $file) it's in octal, in the case of chmod(320, $file) it's in decimal. The two numbers, 0500 and 320, are equivalent representations of the same numbers, they're just in different bases. > futher confusing the issue for me is that > oct(0500) = 208 > 8 is not supposed to be in the octal digit set of 0 to 7? You're confused about what oct does; it returns the decimal representation of an octal value. Also, Perl is going to trip you up here; the decimal equivalent of 0500 is 320, not 208; Perl is converting 0500 to decimal, passing that to oct, and then oct is converting that to decimal again. So, basically, oct(320) == 208. oct is usually used for converting string values to decimal values; it's for interpreting numbers in a different base. For example, say your program takes an octal mode as an argument; if it were to use this mode directly, chmod($ARGV[0], $file), $ARGV[0] would be interpreted in a decimal base, giving a file the permissions -rwxrw-r-- (decimal 500 is octal 0764) when the user intended -r-x------ (octal 0500). Please see perldoc -f oct. Michael -- Administrator www.shoebox.net Programmer, System Administrator www.gallanttech.com -- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
