I got some very good help with my DBI/RMAN here document problem. It now works in part however I am not able to connect to our recovery catalog database. The rough & ready code I'm useing - purely for test purposes - is below 
system("$ENV{'ORACLE_HOME'}/bin/rman <<EOF
             connect target /
             connect catalog aaaaaaaaa/bbbbbbbb@rman-live
             show retention policy ; 
             show all ;
             EOF"
) 
or die "\n\tOops :: $!\n"   ;

[download]
This connects to the target but fails on the catalog connect. 
RMAN>
connected to target database: IFSLIVE (DBID=3249276949)

RMAN>
RMAN-00571: ==========================================================
+=
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ==============
+=
RMAN-00571: ==========================================================
+=
RMAN-04004: error from recovery catalog database: ORA-01017: invalid u
+sername/password; logon denied

RMAN>
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
RMAN configuration parameters are:
CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO REDUNDANCY 1; # default

RMAN>
RMAN configuration parameters are:
CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO REDUNDANCY 1; # default
CONFIGURE BACKUP OPTIMIZATION OFF; # default
CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK; # default
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP OFF; # default
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F'; 
+# default
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 1 BACKUP TYPE TO BACKUPSET; # d
+efault
CONFIGURE DATAFILE BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # defaul
+t
CONFIGURE MAXSETSIZE TO UNLIMITED; # default
CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION FOR DATABASE OFF; # default
CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM 'AES128'; # default
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO NONE; # default
CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '/ifs/app/oracle/live/10.2.0/db
+s/snapcf_IFSLIVE.f'; # default

RMAN>

Recovery Manager complete.

[download]
I think the problem is the @ in the connect string (the username/pass/db are all as I would use when connecting directly but I've not supplied them here for security reasons). I tried putting single quotes around this string but had the same problem. Any suggestions? I'm quite willing to believe it's something simple - like me - but can't see it!
Cheers

In reply to Interpolation Problem? by Ronnie

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