Perl Program works on local machine, not over network?

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

I'm having an issue simply opening a file and having perl output it on the screen when I run it in the command prompt.

Basically...if I put the file in the same folder as my .pl script, and run it...it works fine.

However, when I change the location to say something like this:
$loc = '\\Server\Shared Folder\Text.txt'; I can't get it to read it?
Here's my code...what am I doing wrong?:

print "ENTER ACCOUNT NUMBER: ";
$acct = <>;
print "\n>SEARCHING FOR DISPATCH INSTRUCTIONS ON ACCOUNT #: $acct  Ple
+ase Wait...";
$loc = "\\\\Server\\MappedNetworkDrive\\Folder\\$acct\\DispatchInstruc
+tions.txt";
print $loc;

#Get File Info
open(MYFILE, "$loc") or print "Didn't Open $loc";
 while (<MYFILE>) {
      sleep(5);
         chomp;
     print "$_\n";
 }
 close (MYFILE);
[download]

I love it when a program comes together - jdhannibal

Comment on Perl Program works on local machine, not over network? Download Code

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Re: Perl Program works on local machine, not over network? by toolic (Bishop) on Jan 31, 2012 at 19:08 UTC
$acct will have a newline in it. chomp it. `print "ENTER ACCOUNT NUMBER: "; $acct = <>; chomp $acct;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Perl Program works on local machine, not over network? by jdlev (Scribe) on Jan 31, 2012 at 19:26 UTC
Worked Great...THANKS BIG TIME! YOU GET MY VOTE :) I love it when a program comes together - jdhannibal	[reply]
Re: Perl Program works on local machine, not over network? by dasgar (Priest) on Jan 31, 2012 at 19:12 UTC
A couple of suggestions to help you get more help from perl itself: 1.) Add `use strict;` and `use warnings;` at the start of your scripts. Of course, this will cause you to need to use my the first time that you use a variable. 2.) Modify you line of code where you open the file to print out a more useful error message by changing it to: `open(MYFILE, "$loc") or print "Didn't Open $loc: $!\n";` [download] With more useful warning and error messages, it will be easier for you (and others) to debug the issue(s).	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Perl Program works on local machine, not over network? by GrandFather (Saint) on Jan 31, 2012 at 19:23 UTC
Even better with the open is to use the three parameter variant and lexical file handles: `open my $inFile, '<', $sloc or die "Can't open $loc: $!\n";` [download] which makes the open mode explicit (and avoids a potential injection attack), and gives all the strictly goodness advantages from using the lexical file handle. Oh, and don't interpolate a single variable (`"$loc"`) - there is no need and clutters the code. True laziness is hard work	[reply] [d/l] [select]