File::Random Version 0.17

NAME

File::Random - Perl module for random selecting of a file

INSTALLATION

The classic

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

will do this job.

SYNOPSIS

use File::Random qw/:all/;

my $fname = random_file();

my $fname2 = random_file(-dir => $dir);

      my $random_gif = random_file(-dir       => $dir,
                                   -check     => qr/\.gif$/,
                                   -recursive => 1);
                                                           
      my $no_exe     = random_file(-dir   => $dir,
                                   -check => sub {! -x});
                                                           
      my @jokes_of_the_day = content_of_random_file(-dir => '/usr/lib/jokes');
      my $joke_of_the_day  = content_of_random_file(-dir => '/usr/lib/jokes');
      # or the shorter
      my $joke = corf(-di r => '/usr/lib/jokes');
  
      my $word_of_the_day = random_line('/usr/share/dict/words');
      my @three_words     = random_line('/usr/share/dict/words',3);
      # or
      my ($title,$speech,$conclusion) = random_line('/usr/share/dict/words');

DESCRIPTION

This module simplifies the routine job of selecting a random file. (As you can find at CGI scripts).

It's done, because it's boring (and errorprone), always to write something like

      my @files = (<*.*>);
      my $randf = $files[rand @files];

or

      opendir DIR, " ... " or die " ... ";
      my @files = grep {-f ...} (readdir DIR);
      closedir DIR;
      my $randf = $files[rand @files];

It also becomes very boring and very dangerous to write randomly selection for subdirectory searching with special check-routines.

The simple standard job of selecting a random line from a file is implemented, too.

DEPENDENCIES
This module requires these other modules and libraries:

Want

For the tests are also needed many more modules:

Test::More
Test::Exception
Test::Class
Set::Scalar
File::Temp
Test::Warn
Test::ManyParams

Test::Class itselfs needs the following additional modules: Attribute::Handlers
Class::ISA
IO::File
Storable
Test::Builder
Test::Builder::Tester
Test::Differences

All these modules are needed only for the tests. You can work with the module even without them. These modules are only needed for my test routines, not by the File::Random itself.
(However, it's a good idea most to install most of the modules anyway).

COPYRIGHT

This Program is free software. You can change or redistribute it under the same condition as Perl itself.

Copyright (c) 2002, Janek Schleicher, <bigj@kamelfreund.de>

AUTHOR

Janek Schleicher, <bigj@kamelfreund.de>

SEE ALSO

Tie::Pick Data::Random Algorithm::Numerical::Sample