First, to output to the browser as soon as the information come from script, set the autoflush to on. This can be done with:

$| = 1;
[download]

To discover if the script is running from command line, an possible idea is testing the existance if any CGI environment variable, such as GATEWAY_INTERFACE.

if( defined $ENV{'GATEWAY_INTERFACE'} ) {
  # we are under CGI
} 
else {
  # we are under command line
}
[download]

Hope this helps

How do I find out if I'm running interactively or not?

Good question. Sometimes -t STDIN and -t STDOUT can give clues, someti
+mes not.

if (-t STDIN && -t STDOUT) {
        print "Now what? ";
    }
[download]

 

______crazyinsomniac_____________________________ Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. perl -e "$q=$_;map({chr unpack qq;H*;,$_}split(q;;,q*H*));print;$q/$q;"

Is there an easy check to tell if a script is being invoked from within a DOS shell vs from a browser

This may be a little more than you are really looking for, but it is a quick example of how to extend your tool.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Getopt::Long;

use vars qw: %switches %actionTable @logActions :;

%actionTable    = (
    'email'        => \&_logEmail,
    'browser'    => \&_logBrowser,
    'console'    => \&_logConsole,
    'file'        => \&_logFile,
);

$|++;

&GetOptions( \%switches,
        "email:s",    ## script provides a default if none given
        "file=s",    ## MUST have a file name if you want to log to a 
+file
        "console",    ## console can be target
        "browser",    ## or browser can be target( or both.. )
        "url=s",    ## url to begin from
        "help"        ## jsut a usage thing
);

## are we just looking for help?
if ( $switches{ 'help' } ) {
    print <<EOHELP;
switches:
    --url        <url> site you want to work on
    --email        <address or default if blank> to save output to ema
+il
    --file        <file to open>    to save output to file
    --console    to use console format
    --browser    to use browser format
    --help        this page
EOHELP

    exit(0);
}

## build our @logActions so we know what we have to log to
if ( defined( $switches{ 'email' } ) ) {
    ## we have an email, but it may be empty string, so use default
    ## notice class act style here!
    $switches{ 'email' } = 'root@localhost' if ( $switches{ 'email' } 
+eq "" );

    ## open email here if you are going to use it
    ## ie open( EMAIL, "| /usr/sbin/sendmail -blah )...

    push( @logActions, 'email' );
}

if ( defined( $switches{ 'file' } ) ) {
    ## open our file, do your security checking too
    ## open( FILE, '>' . $switches{ 'file' } ) ...

    push( @logActions, 'file' );
}

if ( $ENV{ 'REMOTE_HOST' } ) {
    ## don't print console data if from browser
    ## this could be better, but for the sake of an example it'll do
    $switches{ 'console' } = 0;
    $switches{ 'browser' } = 1;

}

## note no real error checking if no file/email/console/browser select
+ed
## legal and illegal combinations are up to the reader

    push( @logActions, 'console' ) if $switches{ 'console' };
    push( @logActions, 'browser' ) if $switches{ 'browser' };

    ## do you stuff
print '-' x 11, ' START ', '-' x 11, "\n";

    output( 'test message a' );
    output( 'test message b' );
    output( 'test message c' );

print '-' x 11, '  END  ', '-' x 11, "\n";
exit(0);

sub output {
    my $text = shift;
    defined( $actionTable{ $_ } ) && &{$actionTable{ $_ }}( $text ) fo
+reach @logActions;
}

sub _logConsole {
    print "Console: $_[0]\n";
}

sub _logBrowser {
    print "Browser: <p>$_[0]</p>\n";
}

sub _logEmail {
    ## print EMAIL "$_[0]\n";
    print "Email: $_[0]\n";
}

sub _logFile {
    ## print FILE "$_[0]\n";
    print "File: $_[0]\n";
}
[download]

I know I find the command line much easier to work with, so I hope this helps you. Also, remember this is just an example, there is a lot left to work out.

Will perl for money
JJ Knitis
(901) 756-7693
gt8073a@industrialmusic.com