system( $config->{wkhtmltopdf_path}, @options, $source_file, $config->
+{result_filename}, ">/dev/null", "2>&1" );
[download]

Your problem is that you are passing a list to system and when system is passed a list it does not use the shell, but redirection (>/dev/null 2>&1) requires the shell so you have to put everything into a string:

system "$config->{wkhtmltopdf_path} @options $source_file $config->{re
+sult_filename} >/dev/null 2>&1";
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Bingo! That's the answer:

Note that argument processing varies depending on the number of arguments. If there is more than one argument in LIST, or if LIST is an array with more than one value, starts the program given by the first element of the list with arguments given by the rest of the list. If there is only one scalar argument, the argument is checked for shell metacharacters, and if there are any, the entire argument is passed to the system's command shell for parsing (this is /bin/sh -c on Unix platforms, but varies on other platforms). If there are no shell metacharacters in the argument, it is split into words and passed directly to execvp , which is more efficient.

(Thus saith system.)

Once the OP fixes his system usage, it may be worthwhile to go investigate Capture::Tiny. Rather than worrying about the portability issues that arise when dealing with the shell, leverage the power of CPAN by using Capture::Tiny. It's such a handy module, I wish I had found it several years ago.




Dave

Your code will not work because I can use folders with space in the name and also some of my options contain quotes.

But the direction is right so thank you.

[mod://IPC::Run3 offers redirection, String::ShellQuote/Win32::ShellQuote offer proper quoting

system( "cmd /C \"h2p\\wkhtmltopdf.exe", "http://perlmonks.org/?node_i
+d=980995", "out.pdf", "2>nul\"" );
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That would be 'bash -c' on Linux I think. This is non portable though, so backticks, which Athanasius already mentioned, are probably your best bet.

Thank you for the hint with bash -c!

I have fixed issues with this (really ugly) code:

my @options = qw(
    
    --orientation Landscape
    --load-error-handling ignore
    --page-size A3
    --quiet
);

$config->{wkhtmltopdf_path} =~ s{ }{\\ }g;
$config->{result_filename} =~ s{ }{\\ }g;
my $command = "(" . join(" ", $config->{wkhtmltopdf_path}, @options, $
+source_file, $config->{result_filename}) . ")";
system( "/bin/bash -c \"$command\" >/dev/null 2>&1" );
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A bit modified version (as soon as I need to quote some options too):

my @options = qw(
    
    --orientation Portrait
    --page-size A4
    --title "Rechnung"
    --footer-right "created by Manager  www.somesite.ch"
);

$config->{wkhtmltopdf_path} =~ s{ }{\\ }g;
$source_file =~ s{ }{\\ }g;
$config->{result_filename} =~ s{ }{\\ }g;
my $command = "(" . join(" ", $config->{wkhtmltopdf_path}, @options, $
+source_file, $config->{result_filename}) . ")";
$command =~ s/\"/\\\"/g;

system( "/bin/bash -c \"$command\" >/dev/null 2>&1" );
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Just a thought:

Have you tried using backticks (qx//) instead of system? The perldoc entry addresses the problem of redirecting STDOUT and/or STDERR.

HTH,

It's not a system() problem so the qx// doesn't help too. The called program (wkhtmltopdf) just eat all arguments and don't rest anything to the shell.

You never invoked a shell because you didn't pass a shell command to system

You want

system('sh' => (
   '-c' => '"$@" >/dev/null 2>&1',
   '--',
   $config->{wkhtmltopdf_path},
   @options,
   $source_file,
   $config->{result_filename},
));
[download]

This approach handles spaces and other special characters in file names and options.

When you feed "Here is our Title" to qw(), you would end up with 4 elements, not one. This would result in positional parameters being in the wrong place.

'system' takes a list. @options gives it that list in exactly the order that was specified by 'qw'. Space separated items can be combined into a single string or can be standalone list items. Now how would in this case the positional parameters end up in the wrong place?

See Your Mother's comments below.

I wasn't clear in my previous node - what I meant by "wrong place" was that multiple spaces would be collapsed in a quoted string. (or maybe I'm making that up now - can't remember what I was thinking).

             I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.
                   -SNL

The executed command inherits STDOUT, STDIN, STDERR from the process that executes it. So, you can simply reopen STDERR and STDOUT to /dev/null and then execute the command. See 'perldoc -f open' for details on how to restore your STDERR and STDOUT after the command finishes.

NetWallah alluded to this: qw doesn't handle your args the way you expect, I'm guessing-

print $_, $/ for @options;
--orientation
Portrait
--page-size
A4
--title
"Rechnung"
--footer-right
"created
by
Manager
www.somesite.ch"
[download]

Nice catch but I have tried my code without such options with no luck (same error). So I'm absolutely sure this is not qw() issue.

This is wkpdftohtml issue (see this)

Sure, sure. I didn't think is was the ultimate problem, just that it might be truncating/mangling arguments unexpectedly.