Re: Using the bang(!) in perl system commands

system uses sh on unix platforms (if the string to execute includes shell meta characters). Is >! an sh feature on your system? On mine, as best as I can tell, your code would be a misuse of the ! reserved word.

Use the bourne shell syntax for what you are trying to do, or specify your shell explicitely:
system('/bin/mysh', '-c', 'pwd >! tmp_1');

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Re^2: Using the bang(!) in perl system commands by kettle (Beadle) on Jun 06, 2006 at 08:38 UTC
Thanks! That was a great little explanation. I am using the tcsh shell, by the way - for which '>!' is legal, though redundant (with regard to my setup). Happy trails. jOe	[reply]
Re^3: Using the bang(!) in perl system commands by derby (Abbot) on Jun 06, 2006 at 13:23 UTC
More than likely your version of perl was built with some version of sh and system uses that. Some versions of sh (bash) have a noclobber setting that prevents overwriting of existing files. I would check either the user's shell settings (~/.bashrc for bash) or the default system settings (/etc/bashrc) for a noclobber setting and reset appropriately. If you cannot unset the noclobber setting, you will have to use the syntax appropriate for the shell being used by perl -- which for bash is the rather clumsy >\| -derby	[reply]