Re: NET::FTP replaces characters in file with NULL

I have been unable to replicate your problem -- your code works fine for me (with all the CGI stuff cleaned out, anyhow). Are you sure the original file isn't empty? Is that file uploaded to the CGI, which then sends it on? If so, perhaps there's a bug elsewhere in your program. Note that I'm assuming it's a cgi because of the calls to param(). I can see that you're also new to perl, and probably came from C. Allow me to suggest that string handling doesn't need to be as complex as you make it out to be. Compare

my $localfile = sprintf("%s/%s",
                         $params->get("Path.From"),
                         $params->get("File"));
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my $localfile = params->get("Path.From") . '/' . $params->get("File");
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You also are using more than one variable with the same name, which can be confusing. I suggest you examine your usage of @hosts and $hosts in your program. Without the cleanup I did to make it not require CGI, I doubt your program would do what you'd expect it to. Below are some more comments..

You're not actually using the argument you're recieving to this function. $hosts and @hosts are not the same variable. Your initial assignment gives $hosts the first parameter to this function, which you then ignore. Instead, maybe you should try something more like
```
my ($host, $login, $scrambled_pass) = @_;
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```
and not keep all that stuff in an array? A descriptive variable name (or hash key) is a lot more descriptive than a numeric index.
You're overusing 'my'. You only use it once per subroutine, and it's best (IMO) to declare variables with it where you first use them, not up at the top.
You're probably unintentionally misusing types, and accidentally taking references to anonymous things. Your
```
    my $host = { 'host' => $hosts->[0],
                 'login' => $hosts->[1],
                 'pass' => $pass
                 };
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```
is taking a reference to an anonymous hash. That's fine, but why arn't you just using a normal hash in this case? I think that it's also a symptom of the same thing that you declare a lot of unused variables at the top of your procedure.
You comment too much. If you line up your braces, or use a better programmer's text editor, you won't need to comment ends of blocks.

I hope this helps.

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Re: Re: NET::FTP replaces characters in file with NULL by demerphq (Chancellor) on Apr 22, 2003 at 17:59 UTC
You also are using more than one variable with the same name, which can be confusing. I suggest you examine your usage of @hosts and $hosts in your program. Personally I have no problem with using %hosts, @hosts and $hosts all in the same code. But thats just me. Now if @hosts contained something other than hosts, I would find that confusing. ;-) (Although I personally would lean towards %host @host and $host) --- demerphq _{<Elian> And I do take a kind of perverse pleasure in having an OO assembly language...}	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: NET::FTP replaces characters in file with NULL by mnlight (Scribe) on Apr 22, 2003 at 18:21 UTC
no I am not using CGI. Some of our programs use it and some don't and in order to maintain some consistency we use the same configuration files we load the same files. I am sure that the file starts with data. Because one of the sub routines copies that file to make sure we don't loose it and the copied file has data. I also made sure that the cp() wasn't problem.	[reply]