I need to run Korn shell (ksh) commands within Perl scripts as a different user than the script is running as. So far I am not too happy with what I have written. I need a sort of seemless way to use ksh as the external shell when I use backticks or run a shell command, even if it requires a password and runs as a different use. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I know about Shell and Shell::Source CPAN modules. What determines which shell Perl will use as default when passed a command in backticks? What can I do to avoid escaping character after character? 


my $action = "\'( cd $path && tar cf - . )|( cd $targ && tar xBf - )\'
+";

$cmds[0] = "`su $user -c \"ksh -c $action \"`";


foreach my $cmd (@cmds) {

    eval { 
    print "Please enter $user password\n";
    open( CMD, "$cmd |" ) or die "Error: $!\n";
    };

    if ($@) {
        die "Error: could not copy files: $dest: $@\n";
    }
            

    while ( <CMD> ) {
        print "COMMAND: $_\n";
    }
            
} # end foreach

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In reply to External Ksh Commands by hackdaddy

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