Perl question: Anyway to invoke Linux commands...

STAGED · 01-29-2006, 09:48 PM

Perl question: Is there a way **in a Perl script** to invoke a Linux command (i.e., . I know there are a few Linux/UNIX commands that are inherited (more or less) in built-in Perl functions.

But is there a general way for a Perl script to use Linux commands from the script???

Thanks in advance.

P.S.: This is not homework, merely a side curiosity...Perl for Perl's sake I profess.

microsoft/linux · 01-29-2006, 11:30 PM

I know in C/C++ you do

Code:

system("<linux command goes here>");

and that will run the command. I'm not sure about Perl, but my understanding is that the 2(or 3, depending on how you look at it) languages are pretty close. This runs the command completely separately.

xhi · 01-29-2006, 11:36 PM

backticks

@lines = `ls -al`;

shares the key with tilde ~

hth

scuzzman · 01-29-2006, 11:43 PM

system() works in Perl too: http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/system.html

paulsm4 · 01-29-2006, 11:54 PM

Equivalently, Perl also lets you treat a Linux command as a file handle:

Code:

open (WHOPROC, "who|") or die "Unable to run 'who'!\n";
while (<WHOPROC>) {
  print "the next line of input is: " . $_;
}
close WHOPROC;

Your .. PSM

STAGED · 01-30-2006, 08:43 AM

Awesome responses. I love this forum. Thanks all.

avirup dasgupta · 02-02-2006, 04:33 AM

also see EXEC() in perl

bigearsbilly · 02-03-2006, 11:50 AM

and qx/command/

you know you can use whatever delimiter you like?

eg:

Code:

primadA$ perl
print qx|pwd|; 
/wls_domains/prima/primadA

DanTaylor · 02-03-2006, 12:57 PM

Make sure that if you are going to use su only commands like kill or shutdown that you either login as su before you run or set your prgm to run as su(will need to input pass before executing rest of code);