I'm trying to pull some statistics off a Yahoo page using LWP::Simple's get method. I noticed that my script would sometimes seem to hang inconsistently, so I stripped down the program to see if I could identify the problem.

I think get is hanging somewhere, but I don't understand why. I read a few other posts here, but wasn't able to find any advice on how to work around the problem. I don't think it's a timeout issue, because the program isn't running the "or die..." code.

Here's the stripped down script: 

use strict;
use LWP::Simple;

my $leagueURL = 'http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/stats/byposition?pos=C,RW
+,LW,D';
my $data = get $leagueURL || die "Couldn't get $leagueURL";
while ( $data =~ m|<a href="/nhl/players/(\d+)">|gs ) {
   my $id = $1;
   my @stats = ($id);
   print STDERR "Getting player $id\n";
   push( @stats, &getCareer($id) );
   push( @stats, &getSplits($id) );
   print STDOUT "@stats\n";
   sleep(15);
}

sub getCareer {
   my ($id) = @_;
   my $url = "http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/$id/career";
   my $data = get $url || die "Couldn't get $url";
   return ("gotCareer");
}

sub getSplits {
   my ($id) = @_;
   my @s = ();
   my $url = "http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/$id/splits?year=care
+er";
   my $data = get $url || die "Couldn't get $url";
   return ("gotSplits");
}

[download]

I've run the stripped code four times now. The first time, it went through the while loop 7 times. Then 4, 2, and 6. In the current run, it's been working on the same iteration for the past twenty minutes.

I would expect if the request was timing out, that I'd be seeing the "Couldn't get $url." message, but that's no happening. Am I doing something wrong? Thank you.

Update: Changed $leagueURL to refer to real page instead of local file.

In reply to LWP::Simple Seems to Hang on get by svsingh

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