I'm writing semi-portable code (Linux / Windows).

I use 'system' to execute an external binary ('tshark', part of the Wireshark collection).

I handle slashes like this:

use File::Which qw(which);
$tshark_binary = which('tshark');
$tshark_binary =~ s/\\/\\\\/g if $tshark_binary =~ /\\/;

[download]

The last line functions essentially as a "If this is Windows, escape the slashes in the path name", such that 'C:/Program Files/Wireshark/tshark.EXE' turns into 'C://Program Files//Wireshark//tshark.EXE'.

And then, when I actually execute tshark, I use the following:

system("\"$tshark_binary\" -r $pcap -e frame.number -e  frame.time_epo
+ch -e ip.src -e ip.id -T text -T fields -E separator=, > $temp_file")
+;

[download]

The key 'portability' change being the escaped quotes around $tshark_binary, which aren't necessary in Linux but are needed under Windows, to dodge the: "C:\Program" is not an executable errors.

This is fine, and it works. But is there a more elegant / common way to accomplish these two tasks?

--sk

In reply to portability / system / elegance by skendric

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.