Creating directory and its files

Hi there:
I want to create a directory and create files under it.
I can use

FileUtils.mkdir_p ARGV[0]

to create a directory, however if the directory already exist, program
will
generate error messages:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:243:in
mkdir': File exists - ETFlist (Errno::EEXIST) from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:243:infu_mkdir’
from
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:217:in
mkdir_p' from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:215:inreverse_each’
from
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:215:in
mkdir_p' from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:201:ineach’
from
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:201:in
`mkdir_p’

Please tell me how to solve this problem.

Thank you so much.

Martin S. wrote:

Hi there:
I want to create a directory and create files under it.
I can use

FileUtils.mkdir_p ARGV[0]

to create a directory, however if the directory already exist, program
will
generate error messages:

How about posting what you want to do if the directory already exists?
If you want to overwrite it(=delete it), then first check if the
directory exists:

if File.exist?(“dirname”)

If it does, then:

if File.exist?(“dirname”)
FileUtils.remove_dir(“dirname”)
end

But that is playing with fire. You could end up deleting your whole
hard drive if you get the right file name in there. A safer option
would be to rename the old dir, and then create the new dir.

You mention me it’s safe to create a directory with date version
like directory_yy_mm_dd

i can get date by

time=Date.today()

but how to connect the directory name with the time?

I use

FileUtils.mkdir_p ARGV[0]+time

but there is an error message:

test2.rb:61:in `+’: can’t convert Date into String (TypeError)

7stud – wrote:

Martin S. wrote:

Hi there:
I want to create a directory and create files under it.
I can use

FileUtils.mkdir_p ARGV[0]

to create a directory, however if the directory already exist, program
will
generate error messages:

How about posting what you want to do if the directory already exists?
If you want to overwrite it(=delete it), then first check if the
directory exists:

if File.exist?(“dirname”)

If it does, then:

if File.exist?(“dirname”)
FileUtils.remove_dir(“dirname”)
end

But that is playing with fire. You could end up deleting your whole
hard drive if you get the right file name in there. A safer option
would be to rename the old dir, and then create the new dir.

Martin S. wrote:

You mention me it’s safe to create a directory with date version
like directory_yy_mm_dd

i can get date by

time=Date.today()

but how to connect the directory name with the time?

I use

FileUtils.mkdir_p ARGV[0]+time

require ‘date’

time = Date.today()
fname = “somestring”

combined1 = fname + time.to_s
combined2 = “#{fname}-#{time}”

puts combined1, combined2

–output:–
somestring2009-04-26
somestring-2009-04-26