So I've got this SAR output from a mainframe that I've ftp'd to my PC so I can parse it. But I can't parse it--in fact, I can't read more than the first few lines of it before the program terminates.

After trying lots of stuff, I pared it down to a minimum:

use strict;
my $i;
open(DC08, '<c:\temp\dc08dl03a.txt');
open(DCOU, '>c:\temp\dc08dl03.txt');
DC: while (<DC08>) { print DCOU "$_\n"; }
close(DC08);
close(DCOU);
[download]

Over 3000 lines in that file, but only the first 57 copy. When I yank the offending line, another few copy, then it stops again. I could iterate out the offending lines, but hey! That's harder than doing the whole thing by hand!

So--I ftp'd the data and the script over to a UNIX node, and there, everything is copacetic.

Clearly, there's something in the input breaking Perl. Is it a bug in Build 628? Or is it a bug in 5.6.1? The UNIX server is running the venerable 5.003 (and will for some time, I'm sure.)

adamsj

These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others. --Groucho Marx