#!/usr/bin/perl

my $SED = "/bin/sed";
my $username = "user1";
my $password = "password";
my $host = "localhost";

&start_login;

sub start_login
{    
   my $telnet = new Net::Telnet( -host => $hostname,
                                  -telnetmode => '');   
   telnet_login($username,$password,$host,\$telnet);

   ### This is the the problem area ###
   @vacation_str=$telnet->cmd("$SED s/\$SUBJECT/SUBJECT/g /home/$usern
+ame/.vacation.msg");   
   ###
   telnet_close(\$telnet);
}

sub telnet_login
{
    use Net::Telnet;
    my ($username, $password, $host, $telnet) = @_;
    my $error_msg = "Incorrect username or password, please try again"
+;
    my $error_type = "ERROR";
    $$telnet = new Net::Telnet ('Timeout'=>'7',
                                'Prompt'=> '/.*([\$#\%>~]|\\\[\\e\[0m\
+\\] \[0m)\s?/' );
    $$telnet->open(Host=>$host);
    $$telnet->login($username,$password);
}
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I applogize for posting a similar post previously. Two people responded with some very good ideas that I am stil working with. Yet, I am still unable to make headway. The above code does not return to the variable @vacation_str what I expect. If I simply run the above 'sed' command in bash, it returns exactly what I am looking for (a vacation message string with all of the '$'s stripped from it). However, Using the Net::Telnet 'cmd' method to send the above command 'sed s/\$SUBJECT/SUBJECT/g /home/$username/.vacation.msg', only the first line of the vacation message shows up. Dispite all the approaches I have tried, I have not found one that returns the full contents of the .vacation.msg file when the file contains a $. My best guess is that I am not escaping something in the 'sed' commnad correctly, though I have tried fruitlessly to modify the expression so that it will work. If anyone has any ideas or resources, I would be very open to what you have to say. Thanks for your time,
Joe