Concat strings from parameter file

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

Dear monks,
when I run the following code

#! perl -w

use strict;
use warnings;
use Carp;
use DBI;
use DBD::Oracle qw(:ora_types);


my %env_hash;
my $os = 'solaris';
my $stringetje;
my $temp;
my @tempar;
my @wkflist;

my $PARAMETER;

$env_hash{$os} = {parfile => '/ontw/data/powercenter8/PRJ10/BMRK.par',
                                    del => 'rm -f ',
                                    files => 'wf_BMRK*.out'};

open($PARAMETER, '<', "$env_hash{$os}{parfile}") or croak "\nCould not
+ open parameterfile $env_hash{$os}{parfile}";
while($temp = <$PARAMETER>){
    chomp($temp);
    @tempar = split /=/, $temp;
    if($tempar[0] eq "WKFLIST"){
        @wkflist = split /,/,$tempar[-1];
    }
    else{
        $env_hash{$os}{$tempar[0]} = $tempar[-1];
    }
}

close $PARAMETER;

$stringetje = $env_hash{$os}{del} . $env_hash{$os}{LOGDIR} . $env_hash
+{$os}{files};

print "\n\n\n\n******************************************************\
+n";
print "\nFirst part of the concatenation: delete command : $env_hash{$
+os}{del}";
print "\nSecond part of the concatenation: path : $env_hash{$os}{LOGDI
+R}";
print "\nThird part of the concatenation: file wildcard : $env_hash{$o
+s}{files}";
print "\nThe resulting concatenation: $stringetje";
print "\n******************************************************\n\n\n\
+n";
[download]

and use the following parameter file BMRK.par:

TIMES=4
LOGDIR=/ontw/log/powercenter8/PRJ10/
TMPDIR=/ontw/data/powercenter8/Tmp/PRJ10
FOLDER=BMRK
SERVICE=IS_PRJ10
DOMAIN=Domain_ONT
USER=Administrator
PASSWORD=**********
WKFLIST="wf_BMRK_File2File_Fixed","wf_BMRK_File2File_Fixed_No_Target",
+"wf_BMRK_File2File_Delimited","wf_BMRK_File2File_Memory","wf_BMRK_Fil
+e2File_CPU"
ORAUSER=jamb_007
ORAPSW=**********
ORACONNECT=dow02.ont.jon.mg
[download]

this renders the following output:

******************************************************

First part of the concatenation: delete command : rm -f 
Second part of the concatenation: path : /ontw/log/powercenter8/PRJ10/
Third part of the concatenation: file wildcard : wf_BMRK*.out
wf_BMRK*.outg concatenation: rm -f /ontw/log/powercenter8/PRJ10/
******************************************************
[download]

However, If I hardcode the $env_hash{$os}{LOGDIR} parameter, as the other $env_hash{$os} parameters the output is the correct:

******************************************************

First part of the concatenation: delete command : rm -f 
Second part of the concatenation: path : /ontw/log/powercenter8/PRJ10/
Third part of the concatenation: file wildcard : wf_BMRK*.out
The resulting concatenation: rm - f /ontw/log/powercenter8/PRJ10/wf_BM
+RK*.out
******************************************************
[download]

I have absolutely no clue why this behaves as it does. As some parameters are shared, I'd like to keep the parameter file (so hardcoding the parameters which does work is not really an option). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comment on Concat strings from parameter file Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Concat strings from parameter file by almut (Canon) on Dec 08, 2009 at 09:36 UTC
`wf_BMRK.outg concatenation: rm -f /ontw/log/powercenter8/PRJ10/`* Looks like there is a carriage return (`\r`) at the end of the string in `$env_hash{$os}{LOGDIR}` (i.e. `"/ontw/log/powercenter8/PRJ10/\r"`) , which makes the terminal's cursor move to the beginning of the line... (To verify, redirect the output to a file and then hexdump its contents.)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Concat strings from parameter file by jevaly (Sexton) on Dec 08, 2009 at 09:46 UTC
When I look at the hexadecimal version of the parameter file there is indeed a carriage return ('0D'). However, I lived in the blissful ignorance that the chomp($temp) would spare me all the nasty newline problems. Apparently it doesn't?	[reply]
Re^3: Concat strings from parameter file by almut (Canon) on Dec 08, 2009 at 09:56 UTC
...that the `chomp($temp)` would spare me all the nasty newline problems Depends on what's in `$/`. `$/` by default holds `"\n"`. On Windows, the `:crlf` PerlIO layer is responsible for translating `"\r\n"` to `"\n"`. On Unix, this layer is not active (by default), so in case you have input coming from Windows (via cut-n-paste, or whatever), the carriage returns will survive.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Concat strings from parameter file by ph0enix (Friar) on Dec 08, 2009 at 09:57 UTC
`chomp()` will remove only trailing string that corresponds to the current value of `$/` (`$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR`).	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Concat strings from parameter file by roboticus (Chancellor) on Dec 08, 2009 at 15:43 UTC
jevaly: Yep ... in the Windows world, things can be a bit messy. Many Windows users simply replace `chomp $varname;` with `$varname =~ s/\s+$//;` to trim off all trailing whitespace from a variable. NOTE: It's not an exact replacement, so if your code expects whitespace at the end of your lines, you'll probably want to adjust $/ to the proper value for your incoming files. For my purposes, removing whitespace from the end of the string works fine in nearly all cases. ...roboticus	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Concat strings from parameter file by ph0enix (Friar) on Dec 08, 2009 at 09:49 UTC
You have to check line endings in your parameter file. It looks like you have mixed combination of `\r` and `\n` which `chomp()` do not remove.	[reply] [d/l] [select]