The capture group in the regex is missing an open paren, e.g. /Download\:([0-9\.]*)/ (although I might suggest something like /Download:\s*(\S+)/ to make it a little bit more flexible if the program's output varies). You say it works on AIX, I'm a little unsure how that's possible...

On Ubuntu, is cron emailing any error messages to the crontab's user? What error messages do you get running this from the command line (not from the crontab)?

You really should be using warnings and strict!

Also, there are modules that can help you capture the output of external programs, such as Capture::Tiny, IPC::System::Simple or IPC::Run3.

You can either have the script write to an output file, or do it from the crontab using shell redirection - in either case you can append to the output file using >> instead of >.

Yes! Your suggestion for the if-statement works like a charm!

The script ran just as it should before as well, it just didn't give me the results from the test. Which is strange because it did so on the AIX system at work. The only thing not printing to screen is the up/down values.

Since I started mucking around with Perl only days ago I'm not very aware of how to really do stuff. I will definitely look into warnings and strict, and perhaps look for a smarter way of building it without the if-elsif.

Thanks for the help! :-)

Oh, btw... Here's the output using your statements:

Fri Dec 12 07:30:00 2014 : Download 47.82
Fri Dec 12 07:30:00 2014 : Upload 10.28
[download]

Does this code compile on your machine? Your two regexes contain unbalanced parentheses.

Yes, it runs without problems. I'm using tmux from work, so copy/paste from it doesn't really work that well. I probably just wrote it down wrong while using notepad.

Why use speedtest-cli (written in python) when a perl version that can do more exists?

I wrote speedtest in perl because the author of speedtest-cli is not very open to new suggestions (and because python sucks).

$ speedtest --help
usage: speedtest [ --no-geo | --country=NL ] [ --list | --ping ] [ opt
+ions ]
       --geo          use Geo location (default true) for closest test
+server
       --all          include *all* servers (default only in own count
+ry)
    -c --country=IS   use ISO country code for closest test server
    -1 --one-line     show summary in one line

    -l --list         list test servers in chosen country sorted by di
+stance
    -p --ping         list test servers in chosen country sorted by la
+tency
       --url          show server url in list

    -s --server=nnn   use testserver with id nnn
       --url=sss      use specific server url (do not scan) ext php
       --mini=sss     use specific server url (do not scan) ext from s
+ss
       --download     test download speed (default true)
       --upload       test upload   speed (default true)
    -q --quick[=20]   do a      quick test (only the fastest 20 tests)
    -Q --realquick    do a real quick test (only the fastest 10 tests)
    -T --try[=5]      try all tests on the n fastest servers

    -v --verbose[=1]  set verbosity
       --simple       alias for -v0
       --ip           show IP for server
    -V --version      show version and exit
    -? --help         show this help

  speedtest --list
  speedtest --ping --country=BE
  speedtest
  speedtest -s 4358
  speedtest --url=http://ookla.extraip.net
  speedtest -q --no-download
  speedtest -Q --no-upload

$ speedtest
Testing for 1.1.1.1 : XS4ALL Internet BV (NL)
Using 4358:  53.18 km      50 ms KPN
Test download ........................................Download:   93.8
+29 Mbit/s
Test upload   ........................................Upload:    117.2
+57 Mbit/s
$ speedtest -1v0
DL:   93.877 Mbit/s, UL:  116.910 Mbit/s
[download]

++ for your speedtest Tux!! just tried and i'm very happy with it.
L*
There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.

Here;s my contribution - this code returns a comma-separated list that can eventually be graphed by a spreadsheet program.

use strict;
use warnings;

open my $speedtest,"speedtest-cli --simple |" or die "Cannot open spee
+dtest:$!";
my %speed = (DATETIME =>  '"' . GetDateTime()->{datetime} . '"');
while (<$speedtest>) {
    next unless m/(\w+): ([\d\.]+)/;
    $speed{$1} = $2;
}
close $speedtest;
print join(",",map {$speed{$_}} qw|DATETIME Download Upload|),"\n";

sub GetDateTime{ 
    local $_={};
    @$_{qw|sec min hour mday mon year wday yday isdst|} =localtime(tim
+e);
             $_->{year}+=1900;
             $_->{mon}+=1;
             $_->{yyyymmdd} = sprintf "%04d-%02d-%02d", @$_{qw|year mo
+n mday|};
             $_->{hhmm}     = sprintf "%02d:%02d",      @$_{qw|hour mi
+n|};
             $_->{datetime} = $_->{yyyymmdd} . " " . $_->{hhmm};
    return $_
}
[download]

"2014-12-11 22:58",53.79,7.19
[download]

Cool!

I like the use of print join and I will add this to my script.

This is the crontab line I use for appending the results in the same file, I also added an \n to my script to make a new line for each test. I don't see the need for throwing this into a .csv or such, so the notepad will suffice.

What's the best practice for writing to file? Should the file be written by the script, or is it okay to do this with crontab?

* */12 * * * /usr/bin/perl /bin/speedtest.pl >> /storage/documents/cron/speedtest/speedtest.txt 2>&1

You guys are awesome! I've never encountered a forum where people answer this fast, and all the response is helpful. I'm going to be a lot on this website henceforth :-)

... best practice for writing to file

My preference is for the program/script to send output to STDOUT. Externally (as you have done it), this is directed to a user-specified location, which could well be a socket to a different machine, plumbed into a pipe, or dispersed somewhere cloudy or smoggy.

        "You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."         - Robin Williams

#    -c --count    how many times repeat the check. default is 1
#    -s --sleep    seconds between checks. default is 1.
#    -v --verbosity from 0 (one line output for each check) to 3. defa
+ult 1

webTimeLoad23.pl -u www.perlmonks.org -v 0 -c 1000 -s 60
Fri Dec 12 10:15:46 2014        http://www.perlmonks.org        200   
+  116076  2.335208        48.5419 Kb/s
Fri Dec 12 10:16:48 2014        http://www.perlmonks.org        200   
+  116076  1.913632        59.2358 Kb/s
Fri Dec 12 10:17:50 2014        http://www.perlmonks.org        200   
+  116076  1.798926        63.0129 Kb/s
Fri Dec 12 10:18:52 2014        http://www.perlmonks.org        200   
+  116316  1.816933        62.5174 Kb/s
[download]