How to know the exit status of sub-commands running with backticks in Perl.

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

Dear Perl Monks, I am a novice in perl and currently stuck with a problem. please help. My code has lines like:

}elsif ($branchurl =~ /sites/) {
        $outfile_merge = 'STARTING MERGE FOR sites\n==================
+================\n';
   $branchurl =~ /sites\/(.+)\/branches/i;
        print "$1";
        $outfile_merge = `cd trunk/sites/$1; svn merge --dry-run $bran
+churl .`;
        print " 5 - $outfile_merge\n";
    }
[download]

In the above snippet, I want to know if there is an error with the cd command or svn merge command and come out of the loop with a error message Can one of you recommend what best I can do please? Thanks a tonne !!

Comment on How to know the exit status of sub-commands running with backticks in Perl. Download Code

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Re: How to know the exit status of sub-commands running with backticks in Perl. by ikegami (Patriarch) on Apr 05, 2012 at 21:55 UTC
It sets `$?` like `system`.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: How to know the exit status of sub-commands running with backticks in Perl. by kkurnala (Initiate) on Apr 05, 2012 at 22:03 UTC
can you please explain a little more? Thanks :)	[reply]
Re^3: How to know the exit status of sub-commands running with backticks in Perl. by GrandFather (Saint) on Apr 05, 2012 at 22:15 UTC
You may wish to read perlvar in addition to the system documentation already mentioned. Search for $?. Note too that if backticks fails it will set the special variable $!. True laziness is hard work	[reply]
Re^4: How to know the exit status of sub-commands running with backticks in Perl. by ikegami (Patriarch) on Apr 06, 2012 at 21:22 UTC