Re^3: tar, system() & pipes?


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by ikegami (Patriarch)

on Jul 17, 2007 at 20:38 UTC ( #627124=note: print w/replies, xml )

Need Help??

I think the following is safe on unix platforms:

my $q_archive  = quotemeta($ARGV[0]);
my $q_filename = quotemeta($filename);
system("tar $args $q_archive > $q_filename")
[download]

It can also be written as

system("tar $args \Q$ARGV[0]\E > \Q$filename\E")
[download]

quotemeta (called directly or via \Q..\E) will backslash-escape any non-word characters, so the file names can safely contain symbols and spaces.

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Re^4: tar, system() & pipes? by Anonymous Monk on Jul 17, 2007 at 20:55 UTC
Thank you! Use of quotemeta appears to work. Why is this needed?	[reply]
Re^5: tar, system() & pipes? by Argel (Prior) on Jul 17, 2007 at 22:11 UTC
Why is quotemeta needed or why do you have to call 'system' this way? For quotemeta the code will work for files with special characters in them. For system I imagine the LIST version exists to make it easier to pass in a large number of parameters, deal with ones with special characters, and/or build a list of parameters without having to join them later on. As explained by others the IO redirection ('>') is something the shell handles but when system is called in LIST context it will be passed to the tar command as a parameter instead. Because tar has no '>' command line option it errors out -- just like it does with any other incorrect parameter (e.g. -y).	[reply]

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