Suppression of Output Message

bichonfrise74 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Here's a snippet of my code.

#!/usr/bin/perl

$counter = `ls /tmp/myfile.txt`;
[download]

The output is
ls: /tmp/myfile.txt: No such file or directory

Is there a way to suppress the output message of $counter, so that if it does not find any file, it will not print anything?

Comment on Suppression of Output Message Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Suppression of Output Message by tilly (Archbishop) on Sep 09, 2008 at 18:45 UTC
Is there any reason that you aren't using a built in file test? `$counter = -e "/tmp/myfile.txt";` [download] That is less code, doesn't launch a new process, and you won't run into trouble if you're passed a filename with things like spaces in it. To learn more about the available filetests in Perl, check out http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/-X.html.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Suppression of Output Message by bichonfrise74 (Vicar) on Sep 09, 2008 at 22:43 UTC
Interesting! I've used file tests before but not in this manner. Thanks! I will try this out.	[reply]
Re^2: Suppression of Output Message by Lawliet (Curate) on Sep 09, 2008 at 19:37 UTC
I'd ++ but gots no moar votes left :( That being said, I second this idea. I'm so adjective, I verb nouns! chomp; # nom nom nom	[reply]
Re: Suppression of Output Message by dreadpiratepeter (Priest) on Sep 09, 2008 at 18:36 UTC
try: $counter = `ls /tmp/myfile.txt 2>/dev/null`; [download] -pete "Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."	[reply] [d/l]