How to list directory contents with Path::Tiny in Perl?

Listing Directory Contents with Path::Tiny in Perl

Path::Tiny is a lightweight and convenient Perl module for file and directory path manipulation—an excellent alternative to using core functions like opendir, readdir, or File::Find. It provides an easy-to-use object-oriented interface that makes directory traversal clean and readable.

To list the contents of a directory using Path::Tiny, follow these simple steps:

• Create a Path::Tiny object pointing to your target directory.
• Call the children method on the directory object. This returns a list of Path::Tiny objects representing the directory entries (files, subdirectories, etc.).
• Iterate over the returned list and, for example, print their names or paths.

Key Concepts in the Example

• Path::Tiny->new($dir) creates a path object (note the use of arrow -> for method calls on classes/objects).
• children returns the directory contents in list context, and the entries are Path::Tiny objects themselves.
• You can call basename, stringify, or just stringify the object to get a string representation of the path.
• Perl context rule: method like children return a list in list context (so you can iterate with foreach).

Example: Listing All Entries in the Current Directory

use strict;
use warnings;
use Path::Tiny;

# Create a Path::Tiny object for the current directory
my $dir = Path::Tiny->new(".");

# Get all entries (files and directories)
my @entries = $dir->children;

print "Directory contents of '", $dir->stringify, "':\n";

foreach my $entry (@entries) {
    # $entry is a Path::Tiny object; use basename for just the name
    print "- ", $entry->basename, "\n";
}

Additional Tips and Gotchas

• children by default does not recurse. It only lists immediate files/folders inside the directory.
• It returns all entries except . and ...
• You can filter entries by passing a code reference to children, e.g. $dir->children(sub { $_->is_file }) to get only files (Perl 5.10+).
• Since Path::Tiny objects overload stringification, simply printing them gives the path as a string.
• Make sure Path::Tiny module is installed (`cpan Path::Tiny`) as it's not core.

Summary

Path::Tiny makes directory listing straightforward and readable by providing the children method that returns directory items as objects. This improves readability over traditional opendir/readdir and helps avoid common pitfalls such as forgetting to exclude . and ...

Use the simple example above to get started listing directories with Path::Tiny, then explore filtering and recursion for advanced traversal.