fabster01 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

OS: Solaris 10 ( X86 ) Hi I am a new bie and have been coding a relatively easy structured programming method. I have a snippet of my program which will: 
#-----Running LDAPMODIFY Against The Ldif File Created-----#
sub RunUpdate
{
    print "--Updating Directory server. Please wait for a moment....\n
+\n";    
    my $resultLdapSearch = `ldapmodify -h $ldap_server -D "cn=Director
+y Manager" -w $dir_mgr_pwd -f $ldap_modify_file`;
    #print "resultLdapSearch: $resultLdapSearch\n";
}

[download]
When running the program I get a output error due to the ldapmodify command is trying to update and existing field, as shown below: 
bash-2.05# perl 4-run_update_attributes.pl

**********************************************************************
+*******
Step #4 - The Script WILL NOW Update The Users "Company" and "Co" Attr
+ibutes
**********************************************************************
+*******

Do you want to continue [y]:
--Updating Directory server. Please wait for a moment....

ldap_modify_s: Type or value exists

**********************************************************************
+*
See Result:
-----------
Log Output file (verified): 01152008.log
**********************************************************************
+*

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As you notice, the error "ldap_modify_s: Type or value exists" appears from the "ldapmodify" that I executed. I need to know how do I capture this value and once I find out, I will write some codes to handle this error. Please advice.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: How to capture error messages...
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 16, 2008 at 01:56 UTC
    You could combine STDERR and STDOUT. Also, you forgot to convert the arguments into literals. 
    my $resultLdapSearch = `ldapmodify -h \Q$ldap_server\E -D "cn=Director
+y Manager" -w \Q$dir_mgr_pwd\E -f \Q$ldap_modify_file\E 2>&1`;

    [download]

    You could make it much more readable, though. 

    my $cmd = join ' ', map quotemeta, (
   'ldapmodify',
   -h => $ldap_server,
   -D => 'cn=Directory Manager',
   -w => $dir_mgr_pwd,
   -f => $ldap_modify_file,
);

my $resultLdapSearch = `$cmd 2>&1`;

    [download]
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      I think that using quotemeta for quoting arguments for the shell is a bad practice. For bash-like shells, it misquotes newline characters. Quotemeta should be used for perl regular expressions and nothing else.

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        Quotemeta should be used for perl regular expressions and nothing else.

        eh?

        For bash-like shells, it misquotes newline characters.

        Indeed. 

        $ perl -e'$msg = "abc\ndef"; print `echo \Q$msg\E`;'
abcdef

        [download]

        system and back-ticks use the bourne shell. What would be a proper escape function for bourne shell args?

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Re: How to capture error messages...
by hipowls (Curate) on Jan 16, 2008 at 03:53 UTC

    IPC::Open3 or IPC::Run provide facilities for running external programs and capturing standard error separately from standard output, but be warned, it's easy to deadlock.

    However you may find that using Net::LDAP better suits your needs. Since the attempted LDAP updates occur within your program checking the result is fairly easy. 

    use Net::LDAP;

my $ldap = Net::LDAP->new( ... );
my $mesg = $ldap->modify( ... );
if ( $mesg->is_error() ) {
    ...
}

    [download]

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[d/l]
Re: How to capture error messages...
by Anonymous Monk on Jan 16, 2008 at 04:03 UTC
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Re: How to capture error messages...
by poolpi (Hermit) on Jan 16, 2008 at 11:56 UTC
    Here you can find a pure Perl clone of the ldapmodify command:

    ldapmodify.pl

    HTH,

    PooLpi
[reply]

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