What version of Perl are using (perl -v)? What system (Windows/Linux)? What shell (bash, csh, command.com, cmd.exe, etc...)?

$test = <STDIN>;
print length $test;
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You will (should) be able to get more if you accept it as lines (where newlines come before the limit is reached) instead of a single string. Try this-

print "Enter text with returns. Press Control+D to submit-\n";
my @input = <STDIN>;

print join("", @input);
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Would try this out

Linux:

$ perl -le'print "x" x ($ARGV[0]-1)' 100 | perl -le'print length <>'
100

$ perl -le'print "x" x ($ARGV[0]-1)' 1000 | perl -le'print length <>'
1000

$ perl -le'print "x" x ($ARGV[0]-1)' 10000 | perl -le'print length <>'
10000

$ perl -le'print "x" x ($ARGV[0]-1)' 1000000 | perl -le'print length <
+>'
1000000
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WinXP:

>perl -le"print 'x' x ($ARGV[0]-1)" 100 | perl -le"print length <>"
100

>perl -le"print 'x' x ($ARGV[0]-1)" 1000 | perl -le"print length <>"
1000

>perl -le"print 'x' x ($ARGV[0]-1)" 10000 | perl -le"print length <>"
10000

>perl -le"print 'x' x ($ARGV[0]-1)" 1000000 | perl -le"print length <>
+"
1000000
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It must be an limit in your environment's pasting mechanism.

Why don't you put your data in a file and pass the file to Perl?

Hi ikegami, Thanks for the input.I too suspect that it should be shell's limitation.Not sure if the length is controlled by a environment/shell varaible of my ksh(*NIX box) which I strongly suspect.I am really after this Env/shell varaible whcih I belive if I can export prior to taking the input then I should be able to input more characters. FYI:As you suggested reading from file would be ideal but the requirement is to take a direct input from command line.The users would be invoking the script from a menu of options where they would be asked for the message through th e command propmt.They are not alloed to create files on unix box. By the way would you mind if I ask you what actually is the line doing: perl -le'print "x" x ($ARGV[0]-1)' 100 | perl -le'print length <>'

I too suspect that it should be shell's limitation.

"too"? I didn't mention the shell at all, but I suppose it could also be the shell's fault.

what actually is the line doing

The first perl creates a long string which is sent to the second perl's STDIN as if someone had typed it. It shows that Perl has no problem reading a line one million bytes long.

If you are a *NIX platform there are similar limits.

There are reasons to have large command lines when working with various utilities and when using a large number of pipe commands. But this definitely not a Perl limitation. Personally when something like this: >proga ....parms.. | progr B .... | prog c ... gets more than a couple of lines, I split it up and use temp files. Normally these very lengthy things are shell commands. I don't know why your Perl program would have to deal with such a thing.

Update: I've never seen a limit as low as 257 on a modern O/S. All of these things can do more, it sounds like a configuration problem to me.

The problem got solved about the number of character inputs when my unix administrator ported the program to another unix box with bash.So , it really was a problem/limitation with the env (the unix env where i was testing the script)and not perl.Now , the script is taking any length of input in the new unix box and the problem is solved.