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Is is possible to: system "cd", $directory; system "cvs", "co", $module; system "tar", "-cvfX", $tar_file, $exclude_file, $module; . . . and have it execute as if it were from a single session?
No. Each system() command runs in its own process.
That means that, e.g., system("cd $directory") has no effect on the following commands.
Use the Perl equivalents of these (e.g., chdir(),
Cwd, File::Copy, some CVS interface module (see replies above),
and what else you need), and you get
safety and portability for free.
Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com
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If that's all you need to do, it sounds like a shell script would
be more appropriate. Perl has things in common with
shell scripting, but it's a lot more than that. I wouldn't
use it simply to automate a few simple tasks in a way
that doesn't use any of the features of Perl. Writing
shell scripts in Perl can only make the whole process slower
than doing it in shell in the first place. | [reply] |
While I do agree with virtualsue, I have a dissenting opinion. I am very new to perl, and programming itself. I can write shell scripts, but they tend to be limited. So I started writing my shell scripts in perl. It has taught me alot! The one most important thing I got out of it was this: I overcame my fear of perl, and it's structure, syntax, etc... I am making myself more comfortable with it each day I use it, and when I need the more advanced functions, I search on perlmonks and try to implement what I've seen. It's tough for me because the last time I wrote programs was about 14 years ago in high school, and that was in basic, and pascal on a TRS-80 (I loved my model 4). So while I agree that dfg2's script would best be written in #!/bin/ksh it might not be the best way to get into perl for a person just (re)starting programming.
-spartan
Very funny Scotty... Now PLEASE beam down my PANTS!
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[d/l] |
I am all for writing Perl programs - I do it myself all the
time.
It's just that the sequence of tasks in question is a perfect example of
something that can be done quickly & simply in shell, and
not so easily in Perl.
I'm not saying you're wrong, because you're not. It's easier to learn a
language if you have a motivation, something that you need
to accomplish. But in this case I think he'd be struggling
with it days after starting, when he'd have a tool he could
use that would make his life easier in a few minutes using
the shell language of his choice.
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