Re^2: system call: Unix system call result into a variable

File::Tail is more for "tail -f" functionality, where you want to keep reading from a continuously updated (i.e. appended to) file. Using backticks (as in your example) or qx is a perfectly acceptable (and simple, efficient) solution.

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Re^3: system call: Unix system call result into a variable by cdarke (Prior) on Jul 18, 2007 at 09:05 UTC
File::Tail may be used like a conventional tail(1) - without the rescan - by specifying the 'tail' argument to the constructor. However to prevent the 'wait' you have to only display those lines you ask for (then destroy the object). For example: `use strict; use File::Tail; my $num_of_lines = 10; my $tail = new File::Tail (name=>$ERRLOG, tail => $num_of_lines); for (1..$num_of_lines) { my $line = $tail->read(); print "$_: $line"; } $tail = undef;` [download] update: I emailed the author of File::Tail (Matija Grabnar) with this solution, and he was kind enough to respond immediately with the following: "You're wasting most of File::Tails potential, but yes, that should work. Note that it won't work if your input is a stream or a pipe (for which ordinary tail would work)."	[reply] [d/l]

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Re^3: system call: Unix system call result into a variable
by cdarke (Prior) on Jul 18, 2007 at 09:05 UTC

File::Tail

use strict;
use File::Tail;

my $num_of_lines = 10;
my $tail = new File::Tail (name=>$ERRLOG, tail => $num_of_lines);
  
for (1..$num_of_lines) {
   my $line = $tail->read();
   print "$_: $line";
}

$tail = undef;
[download]

update:

File::Tail

[reply]
[d/l]