/usr/bin/perl -w?

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

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: /usr/bin/perl -w? by ysth (Canon) on Jun 20, 2005 at 20:33 UTC
Just at a guess, your script has a CR at the end of the shebang line?	[reply]
Re^2: /usr/bin/perl -w? by biochris (Beadle) on Jun 23, 2005 at 20:47 UTC
Thank you so much :)	[reply]
Re: /usr/bin/perl -w? by chas (Priest) on Jun 20, 2005 at 21:14 UTC
And with regard to ysth's reply, I once noted that if my shebang line was #!/usr/bin/perl followed by a carriage return (due to editing the script on a Windows machine and then transferring to Linux), the script exited with an error that the command was not found. (Putting -w at the end of the line fixed the problem, because then the carriage return was ignored as an unknown option, I think.) You can check if the return is there by editing the script in binary mode with vi(m) or emacs, etc. chas	[reply]
Re^2: /usr/bin/perl -w? by jhourcle (Prior) on Jun 20, 2005 at 22:54 UTC
For this very reason, I recommend that you end the shebang line with --.	[reply]
Re^3: /usr/bin/perl -w? by ysth (Canon) on Jun 20, 2005 at 23:00 UTC
Some people take the approach of creating a "/usr/bin/perl\r" link to /usr/bin/perl :)	[reply]
Re^4: /usr/bin/perl -w? by jhourcle (Prior) on Jun 21, 2005 at 00:32 UTC
Re^3: /usr/bin/perl -w? by kaif (Friar) on Jun 21, 2005 at 06:20 UTC
And Unix commands in general, too! Because of shell design and such, typing `rm ` in a directory which contains a file named `-rf` could delete everything (except the file `-rf`)! You should do `rm -- ` instead. I have actually been bitten by this once or twice, but luckily not by `-rf` but something more mundane.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: /usr/bin/perl -w? by jasonk (Parson) on Jun 21, 2005 at 13:17 UTC
Re^2: /usr/bin/perl -w? by biochris (Beadle) on Jun 23, 2005 at 20:49 UTC
Looks like it worked. thanks so much	[reply]
Re: /usr/bin/perl -w? by aditya.singh (Acolyte) on Jun 22, 2005 at 09:36 UTC
Check you shebang(#!) line. You probably have ^M or some other unprintable character there.	[reply]
Re^2: /usr/bin/perl -w? by biochris (Beadle) on Jun 23, 2005 at 20:50 UTC
Yep, that was the problem. Thanks	[reply]