Win32:IdentifyFile

I just uploaded my fourth Perl CPAN module to PAUSE (the Perl Author's Upload Server).

This one was written because of a conversation on perlmonks Chatterbox. A module author was bemoaning the fact that Windows files do not have an inode number. I waded in to say that they do, kinda. However it's not easy to use, and requires a C API to be called. Hence the module, written using XS.

There are two functions, IdentifyFile() and CloseIdentifyFile().

IdentifyFile() returns 3 components to uniquely identify the file or directory. In list context these are returned as a 3 item list, in scalar context they are joined together as a single string using ':'. It is therefore simple to compare two identities in perl, using 'eq'.

Just getting this information could result in a race condition. The file could be deleted, possibly by another process, between getting the information and using it in a test. Worse, another file might be created with the same file index meanwhile. To prevent this scenario, files (or directories) are opened internally by IdentifyFile(), and kept open until CloseIdentifyFile() is called (files are not physically deleted until all open file handles are closed).

I wonder how many people think of that when using an inode number on UNIX?