Re: Swiching between output to file and STDOUT

I was going to reply with the special file "-" (as documented in perlopentut), but I found an inconsistency between 2-arg and 3-arg open. If I do this

open(OUTPUT, '>-') or die;
print OUTPUT "foo\n";
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I get "foo\n" on standard out. However, if I use 3-arg open like so:

open(OUTPUT, ">", '-')
print "foo\n";
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I get the output directed to a file called '-'. This seems like it might be a bug...can anyone point me to somewhere in the docs where this is documented behavior?

thor

Feel the white light, the light within Be your own disciple, fan the sparks of will For all of us waiting, your kingdom will come

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Re^2: Swiching between output to file and STDOUT by edan (Curate) on Nov 11, 2004 at 10:31 UTC
This seems like it might be a bug...can anyone point me to somewhere in the docs where this is documented behavior? Certainly. `perldoc open` (at least, my local pod) states: `In the 2-arguments (and 1-argument) form opening '-' opens STDIN and opening '>-' opens STDOUT.` [download] It specifically declines to mention 3-arg `open`. -- edan	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Swiching between output to file and STDOUT by gaal (Parson) on Nov 11, 2004 at 10:46 UTC
It isn't a bug. 3-arg `open` is the magicless form of the call, and is exactly what you should use when you do want to open a file named "-". It's a bit safer in other places too, because it doesn't make pipes of '\|' characters. "../" still goes up a dir, though.	[reply] [d/l]