NAME File::Edit::Portable - Read and write files while keeping the original line-endings intact, no matter the platform. SYNOPSIS use File::Edit::Portable; my $rw = File::Edit::Portable->new; Get a (read-only) file handle which (if necessary) has had the existing record separator (line endings) replaced with the current local platform's (OS's). my $fh = $rw->read(file => 'file.txt'); Get an array of the contents of the file after having record separators checked/stored, modify the contents, then re-write the file with the original record separator found. my @contents = $rw->read(file => 'file.txt'); s/this/that/g for @contents; $rw->write(contents => \@contents); When writing, override the original record separator with a custom one. $rw->write(recsep => "\r\n", contents => \@contents); Get the original record separator found in the file in hex format. my $hex_record_separator = $rw->recsep('file'); Get the local platforms record separator. This will be in string representation. my $platform_recsep = $rw->platform_recsep; DESCRIPTION The default behaviour of perl is to read and write files using the Operating System's (OS) default record separator (line ending). If you open a file on an OS where the record separators are that of another OS, things can and do break. This module will read in a file, keep track of the file's current record separators regardless of the OS. It can return either a file handle (in scalar context) that has had its line endings replaced with that of the local OS platform, or an array of the file's contents (in list context) with line endings stripped off. You can then modify this array and send it back in for writing to the same file or a copy, where the original file's line endings will be re-appended (or a custom ending if you so choose). Uses are for dynamically reading/writing files while on one Operating System, but you don't know whether the record separators are platform-standard. Shared storage between multpile platforms are a good use case. This module affords you the ability to not have to check each file, and is very useful in looping over a directory where all files may have been written by numerous platforms. METHODS new Returns a new File::Edit::Portable object. read Parameters: file => 'filename' In scalar context, will return a read-only file handle to a copy of the file that has had its line endings replaced with those of the local OS platform's record separator. In list context, will return an array, where each element is a line from the file, with all line endings stripped off. In both cases, we save the line endings that were found in the original file (which is used when write() is used). write Writes the data back to the original file, or alternately a copy of the file. Returns 1 on success. If you inadvertantly append newlines to the new elements of the contents array, we'll strip them off before appending the real newlines. Parameters: file => 'file': Not needed if you've used read() to open the file. copy => 'file2': Set this if you want to write to an alternate file, rather than the original. contents => \@contents: Mandatory, should contain a reference to the array that was returned by read(). recsep => "\r\n": Optional, a double-quoted string of any characters you want to write as the line ending (record separator). This value will override what was found in the read() call. Common ones are "\r\n" for Windows, "\n" for Unix and "\r" for Mac. recsep('file') Returns a string of the hex representation of the line endings (record separators) in 'file'. For example, "\0d\0a" will be returned for Windows line endings (CRLF). platform_recsep Returns the string representation of the current platform's record separator. Takes no parameters. AUTHOR Steve Bertrand, BUGS Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-file-edit-portable at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=File-Edit-Portable. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes. SUPPORT You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command. perldoc File::Edit::Portable You can also look for information at: * RT: CPAN's request tracker (report bugs here) http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=File-Edit-Portable * Search CPAN http://search.cpan.org/dist/File-Edit-Portable/ LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT Copyright 2015 Steve Bertrand. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.