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

Hello Monks,

This is my first post.

I am trying to get the output of an executable in a file. This worked fine with Win2003 but on win2008 server due to compatibility issues, I changed the settings to win2003 SP1 for the executable to run. Honestly I am working on 2008 for the first time.

I see that the out put is getting forked in a new cmd prompt and exits after execution.Is there a way I can get the o/p from this forked window?

Error from the below program in my output file is "child exited with value 0".I am opeing a Dir, running tool.exe for each of the file in side it and spooling output to my file.

Thanks Xhings 

@files = readdir DH;

open STDOUT, '> '.$Location2.'\ProcessedFilesInDir.txt';

foreach $file (@files) {

   $file1 = "tool.exe [- options]";
   system ($file1) == 0 or die "system @args failed: $?";

if ($? == -1) {
    print "failed to execute: $!\n";
    }
elsif ($? & 127) {
    printf "child died with signal %d, %s coredump\n", ($? & 127),  ($
+? & 128) ? 'with' : 'without';
    } 
else {
    printf "child exited with value %d\n", $? >> 8;
    }
}

close STDOUT;

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Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: How to get output from a forked cmd prompt?
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 21, 2010 at 08:26 UTC

    First, Windows can't fork processes. It spawns new processes.

    The problem is that your error checking is buggy. You're reporting an error when none occurred. 

    system($file1);
if ($? == -1) {
    die("Can't execute command: $!\n");
} elsif ($? & 127) {
    die("Command died from signal ", ($? & 127), "\n");
} elsif ($? >> 8) {
    die("Command exited with error ", ($? >> 8), "\n");
}

    [download]

    Update: While it's true that your error handling is buggy, it's not the cause of your problem. Could you please add the following lines after system (in either in your version or mine) and post the output. 

    use Devel::Peek;
Dump($?);

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    I have a hard time believeing $? has a non-integer value or an integer value less than -1, but that's the only way you could get the results you report. This command will report quite precisely the value of $?.

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[d/l]
[select]
      Follwoing is the o/p: 
      SV = PVMG(0x9b2e8c) at 0x9b9d3c
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (GMG,SMG)
  IV = 0
  NV = 0
  PV = 0
  MAGIC = 0x9c4f5c
    MG_VIRTUAL = &PL_vtbl_sv
    MG_TYPE = PERL_MAGIC_sv(\0)
    MG_OBJ = 0x9b9d2c
    MG_LEN = 1
    MG_PTR = 0x9c4f8c "?"

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[d/l]

        Me bad. That should have been 

        use Devel::Peek;
1 if $?;  # mg_get
Dump($?);

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        But don't bother. The only way only what you said could happen is if system and $? are not returning the same thing like they are suppose to. I could ask you to show me a dump of both to confirm that or to show that what you said is wrong. Neither outcome would be productive.

        Since there's no reason to check both, pick one. (See snippets below.) If you then have problems with it containing the wrong value, we'll investigate why it has the wrong value then, knowing what value is obtained and what the value should be. 

        system($cmd);
if ($? == -1) {
    die("Can't execute command: $!\n");
} elsif ($? & 127) {
    die("Command died from signal ", ($? & 127), "\n");
} elsif ($? >> 8) {
    die("Command exited with error ", ($? >> 8), "\n");
}

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        or 
        my $rv = system($cmd);
if ($rv == -1) {
    die("Can't execute command: $!\n");
} elsif ($rv & 127) {
    die("Command died from signal ", ($rv & 127), "\n");
} elsif ($rv >> 8) {
    die("Command exited with error ", ($rv >> 8), "\n");
}

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        By the way, make sure you aren't using system and fork in the same program.

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Re: How to get output from a spawned cmd prompt?
by tokpela (Chaplain) on Jan 21, 2010 at 10:16 UTC

    I would use the IPC::Run3 CPAN module to do this.

    The run3 routine will allow you to capture the STDOUT to a variable that you can then use to check the output 

    run3($cmd, \$stdin, \$stdout, \$stderr);

    [download]

[reply]
[d/l]

      OP might also find Capture::Tiny useful.

      Just a something something...
[reply]

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