Hi,

I'm trying to get a script to read a list of files from the command line or accept a list from STDIN (e.g. ls -1 | script.pl): 

if (@ARGV){
    foreach my $path(@ARGV){
        $path=File::Spec->rel2abs($path);
    }
    $passhash{filearrayref}=\@ARGV;
} elsif ($passhash{stdin}){   # flag to indicate input from stdin
    my $i=0;
    foreach my $path(<>){
        chomp($path);
        $path=File::Spec->rel2abs($path);
        $passhash{filearrayref}[$i]=$path;
        $i++;
    }
} else {die ("No input files specified.\a\n");}

[download]

The script subsequently asks for further input from STDIN (in a separate, unrelated subroutine): 

print STDERR ("Directory \'$$pref{changedir}\' aleady exists. Overwrit
+e?\n".
  "[Y(es)/N(o)/R(eselect destination)/C(lobber all duplicates)]".
  "\a\n");
my $answer = <STDIN>;
chomp ($answer);     # line 106 (see below)
print "$answer\n";   # for testing purposes

[download]
The problem is that the second input gets ignored. The script doesn't wait for user input at all. In fact it behaves as though the variable $answer is never initialised. I'm using strict and warnings, and it tells me: 
Use of uninitialized value in scalar chomp at script.pl line 106.

[download]

This problem doesn't occur if the flag variable $passhash{stdin} is not set. It looks suspiciously like the problem Sojourner described here, but the solution in that case (use CGI.pm) doesn't seem to apply here (this thing's going nowhere near a web site).

I'm sure I'm missing something simple here, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

In reply to STDIN following on? by tfrayner

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