Re: backtick in perl 5.8 cgi under iis 6

Maybe your Perl can't locate your shell (cmd.exe), which is needed in order to run dir. I get the exact behaviour you descibe when I unset my PATH.

For example,

#! c:\perl\bin\perl.exe
use CGI qw(:standard :html3);
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

print header();

print '<html><body>';

$tmp = `dir`;
if (defined($tmp)) {
   print "Dir: $tmp";
} else {
   print "Error: $!";
}

print '</body></html>';
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outputs

Error: Bad file descriptor
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when my PATH is unset.

If you're really trying to get a dir listing, it would be much more efficent to use glob or readdir (like neilwatson suggested).

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Re^2: backtick in perl 5.8 cgi under iis 6 by cseelig (Initiate) on Feb 16, 2006 at 22:05 UTC
Agree. I used "dir" only to avoid getting tangled in the details of the real problem.	[reply]