Getopt::Long loses char

thezip has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Fellow Monks,

I have a script on a Win32 platform (Perl 5.6.1) that accepts command-line arguments via Getopt::Long. I also have a requirement that it be able to accept an argument like:

perl test.pl --str=$%^@*jimbo
[download]

Unfortunately, the caret is lost when I print the string.

#!/perl/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Getopt::Long;

my $str;

GetOptions (
  'str=s' => \$str
);

print $str, "\n";
[download]

If I have no control over the contents of the string, how can I prevent losing the character?

Where do you want *them* to go today?

Comment on Getopt::Long loses char Select or Download Code

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Re: Getopt::Long loses char by jsprat (Curate) on Feb 13, 2003 at 19:55 UTC
It's a Win32 thing. Wrap the offending argument in double quotes `perl test.pl --str="$%^@*jimbo"` and it will work as you'd expect. If you have any double quotes in the string, they'll need to be back-whacked. Just like any other shell, the command prompt (cmd.exe or command.com - you don't say what version of Windows you are running) has certain requirements for quoting on the command line. I took a quick look in the Win2k help file and at msdn for quoting recommendations, but didn't see any documentation. Good luck!	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Getopt::Long loses char by Thelonius (Priest) on Feb 13, 2003 at 20:01 UTC
There is nothing you can do in your Perl program. The characters are gone before Perl has begun running. The ^ is a continuation character for the Windows shell and % is the variable substitution character. It's the responsibility of whoever runs your program to make sure that any special characters are quoted/doubled/escaped. For example, you can say `perl test.pl --str=$%^^@*jimbo`	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Getopt::Long loses char by zengargoyle (Deacon) on Feb 13, 2003 at 19:12 UTC
it's likely Windows command line processing (maybe caret is used for control characters, ie ^G == Ctrl-G). try putting single or double quotes around the option. you may also be able to '\' escape the caret. it works fine under linux. $ perl test.pl --str=$%^@jimbo $%^@jimbo $ perl test.pl --str='$%^@jimbo' $%^@jimbo $ perl test.pl '--str=$%^@jimbo' $%^@jimbo $ perl test.pl --str="$%^@jimbo" $%^@jimbo $ perl test.pl "--str=$%^@jimbo" $%^@jimbo	[reply]
Re: Re: Getopt::Long loses char by thezip (Vicar) on Feb 13, 2003 at 19:26 UTC
I tried these already, but always end up losing either '%' or '^'. Where do you want them* to go today?*	[reply]
Re: Getopt::Long loses char by steves (Curate) on Feb 13, 2003 at 19:23 UTC
Also works fine with 5.6.1 on Solaris. Carat is a Windoze thing according this simple test: `C:\WINNT\system32>echo foo^bar foobar C:\WINNT\system32>` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Getopt::Long loses char by thezip (Vicar) on Feb 14, 2003 at 01:43 UTC
When I doubled both the '%' and the '^', it did the trick: `perl test.pl --str=$%%^^@jimbo` [download] Thanks to all... Where do you want them to go today?*	[reply] [d/l]