How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes?

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by revdiablo (Prior) on Feb 11, 2005 at 22:15 UTC
This feels like an XY problem. You're trying to do X, and you thought of solution Y. So you're asking about solution Y, without even mentioning X [your later posts hint at X, but never really describe it]. The problem is, there might be a better solution, but we can't know that unless you describe what X is. In other words, I would be surprised if you really need the literal '\"' to remain intact. What is the actual problem you're trying to solve?	[reply]
Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by amw1 (Friar) on Feb 11, 2005 at 21:19 UTC
assuming bash or similar shell (unknown on windows) `# \\ escapes the slash # \" escapes the quote # so \\\" escapes a single slash and a quote foo.pl -bar=\\\"donteatem\\\"` [download] perl should get -bar=\"donteatem\"	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by Anonymous Monk on Feb 11, 2005 at 21:27 UTC
Ahh... I'd love to be able to do that... But what if I cannot control the input? I'm reading input destined for another program, and I (most unfortunately) don't have control of what's generating the commandline. So, I'm always going to get \" instead of \\"	[reply]
Re^3: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by VSarkiss (Monsignor) on Feb 11, 2005 at 22:16 UTC
You just answered your own question: if you don't have control over the input, then you can't change what you get. Whether the program gets passed the backslashes on the command line depends on the command processor, not Perl. Your program can only work with what it's given. Do not rebuke them with harsh words ... but rather lead them gently - with URLs - so that they may learn wisdom.	[reply]
Re^3: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by sgifford (Prior) on Feb 12, 2005 at 04:09 UTC
Two thoughts. First, it's the shell that's eating the quotes and backslashes. If you change the shell to a program of your own, you can process these characters however you want. Many programs use the `SHELL` environment variable to select the shell to run, so changing that might help. Second, in order for arguments to have gotten through the shell, they must have been quoted properly. `quotemeta` can quote them properly, even if it's not the same way they were originally quoted.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Feb 11, 2005 at 22:44 UTC
In Windows, >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" "test" test >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" \"test\" "test" >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" "\"test\"" "test" Ug, this is very broken: >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" "te\st" te\st >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" "te\\st" te\\st >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" "te\"st" te"st >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" "te\\"st" te\st Alternate (older?) quoting mechanism: >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" """test""" "test" >perl -e "print $ARGV[0]" """Nevermore"""", quoted the raven." "Nevermore", quoted the raven. [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by artist (Parson) on Feb 11, 2005 at 21:20 UTC
Apply Escape char '\' to both of them. `$a = qq(\\\"hello world\\\"); print $a;` [download] gives \"hello world\"	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by sh1tn (Priest) on Feb 11, 2005 at 21:22 UTC
assuming the ugly win32 cli: `program.pl "\"argument\""` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by DrHyde (Prior) on Feb 14, 2005 at 14:22 UTC
You start by asking on shellmonks instead of perlmonks.	[reply]