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Check if file exists with only URL

mmcw
User

Jun 21, 2001, 1:08 AM

Post #1 of 8 (744 views)

Check if file exists with only URL	Can't Post

How to check if a file exists when I do only have the URL! I do not have the path to the file.

With the path I know you can use: -e $file

Michel

mhx
Enthusiast / Moderator

Jun 21, 2001, 9:26 AM

Post #2 of 8 (738 views)

Re: Check if file exists with only URL [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Michel,

use the get function from the LWP::Simple module:

Code

#!/bin/perl -w 
use strict; 
use LWP::Simple; 
  
my $file = 'http://www.somewhere.org/path/to/my/file'; 
  
if( defined get( $file ) ) { 
  print "File $file exists!\n"; 
} 
else { 
  print "File $file doesn't exist!\n"; 
}

If the return value of get is defined, it is the file you requested. So you could extend this and say:

Code

#!/bin/perl -w 
use strict; 
use LWP::Simple; 
  
my $file = 'http://www.somewhere.org/path/to/my/file'; 
my $data = get( $file ); 
  
if( defined $data ) { 
  print "File $file exists! Here it is:\n$data"; 
} 
else { 
  print "File $file doesn't exist!\n"; 
}

Hope this helps.

-- Marcus

Mortimer
journeyman

Jun 21, 2001, 11:50 PM

Post #3 of 8 (730 views)

Re: Check if file exists with only URL [In reply to]	Can't Post

That's not good enough because .htaccess will make your script report an existing file as non existent.
Cheers,
Dave.
www.dmscripts.com
davemortimer@bigpond.com

mhx
Enthusiast / Moderator

Jun 22, 2001, 2:51 AM

Post #4 of 8 (727 views)

Re: Check if file exists with only URL [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,

you're absolutely right. Do you have any idea how to get around this problem?

-- Marcus

Mortimer
journeyman

Jun 23, 2001, 8:27 AM

Post #5 of 8 (718 views)

Re: Check if file exists with only URL [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hello Marcus.
Well I wouldn't call it a problem, and you can't get around it (nicely), you have to be authorized for this. You can have the LWP::UserAgent module's authorization_basic() method verify that you're authorized to mess with a file...

Code

use LWP::UserAgent; 
 
my $locf = "/path/to/local/file.ext"; 
my $f = 'http://www.domain.com/path/to/serverfile.ext'; 
my $r = new HTTP::Request 'GET', $f; 
my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent; 
$r->authorization_basic( 'username', 'password' ); 
 
my @lines = map{ $_ } split ($/), $ua->request( $r )->content; 
#$ua->mirror( $f, $locf ); # If accessing non .htaccess dirs 
open( FILE, ">$locf" )or die( "Can't open $locf: $!" ); 
print FILE @lines; 
close( FILE );

If you're not authorized, the server will tell you.
If you are authorized and the file doesn't exist, you'll just get the 404 Not Found message.

For some reason we can't mirror() the files in .htaccess protected directories even if we're authorized.
If we want to save the data, we have to create a file with open().

Cheers,
Dave.
www.dmscripts.com
davemortimer@bigpond.com

mhx
Enthusiast / Moderator

Jun 23, 2001, 8:42 AM

Post #6 of 8 (716 views)

Re: Check if file exists with only URL [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thanks for explaining this to me! I'm glad my solution wasn't so wrong. One just has to keep in mind under which circumstances it might fail.

-- Marcus

mmcw
User

Jul 13, 2001, 10:50 PM

Post #7 of 8 (692 views)

Re: Check if file exists with only URL [In reply to]	Can't Post

This solution will only work if the file is not on a secure server!! What when the file is on a secure server??

mhx
Enthusiast / Moderator

Oct 12, 2001, 10:37 PM

Post #8 of 8 (667 views)

Re: Check if file exists with only URL [In reply to]	Can't Post

All LWP modules will work fine with SSL if you install Crypt::SSLeay.

-- Marcus

Code

s$$ab21b8d15c3d97bd6317286d$;$"=547269736;split'i',join$,,map{chr(($*+= 
($">>=1)&1?-hex:hex)+0140)}/./g;$"=chr$";s;.;\u$&;for@_[0,2];print"@_,"

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