I can't use Log4perl.

I can use Log4perl but I choose not to. Perhaps you can use Sys::Syslog instead - writing to syslog is precisely what it is for, after all. I like Log::Any so I would be using Log::Any::Adapter::Syslog. TIMTOWTDI!

My bash script works just fine with a simple echo statement, but perl does not.

See How to ask better questions using Test::More and sample data. What you have provided here is a description of the problem entirely devoid of details and therefore nobody can help you diagnose or fix it.

In perl, you would need to actually open that socket, for example using IO::Socket::INET

I don't recommend that, though, since there are many other ways to interact with syslog. If regular syslog is ok (as opposed to rsyslog) you can use Perl's built-in Sys::Syslog module.

SYNOPSIS
        use Sys::Syslog;                        # all except setlogsoc
+k()
        use Sys::Syslog qw(:standard :macros);  # standard functions &
+ macros

        openlog($ident, $logopt, $facility);    # don't forget this
        syslog($priority, $format, @args);
        $oldmask = setlogmask($mask_priority);
        closelog();
[download]

Yes, even you can use CPAN - nuff said

My bash script works just fine with a simple echo statement, but perl does not.

Well, show us your working bash script.

(I hope some wag doesn't suggest converting it to perl via merlyn's famous sh2perl translator :-)

👁️🍾👍🦟

Since (quote)...
Sys::Syslog is an interface to the UNIX syslog(3) program.

... I'm supposing the OP wants to know how to use system or `backticks` in Perl, because calling CLI programs directly is interwoven into bash.

Saying so, there even was a ACME'ish Shell module from Larry to implement transparent system calls either via AUTOLOAD or by importing them explicitly.

Edit

FWIW it used to be in core

corelist Shell

Shell was first released with perl 5, deprecated (will be CPAN-only) in v5.11.0 and removed from v5.15.0

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
see Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

> I'm supposing the OP wants to know how to use system or `backticks` in Perl, because calling CLI programs directly is interwoven into bash

LanX, given your insightful "that's similar to how I migrated from Bash to Perl" reply to this node's "Perl" code:

system ('grep -l "DATAmessage.*3\.0" *.xml > 3.0_files_arraydata.txt')
+; 
system ("mv temp_3.0_files_onixarraydata.txt 3.0_files_arraydata.txt")
+;  
system ("cat *files_arraydata.txt > data2.txt");
system ("rm data2.txt");
[download]

it seems you would know. :-)

Once the OP posts the working bash script, I trust we could rewrite it in Perl a bit more cleanly than the above monstrosity.

See Also

• Unix shell versus Perl
• Troubleshooting and Logging/Debugging References
• hippo's classic poem: The wise coder
• useless use of cat and other awards

References Added Later

• Using system (); with Strawberry Perl by hadrons (2021) - seeks advice converting a Perl script heavy in its use of system to pure Perl
• how perl do 'envsubst' by vincentaxhe (2024) - converting a bash script using the Linux envsubst command to perl
• Commify function regex in Perl vs sed by harangzsolt33 (2025) - wants to port some Perl code to bash
• envsubst - Linux envsubst command (typically usr/bin/envsubst)
• GNU gettext envsubst - envsubst is part of the GNU gettext utilities
• How to substitute shell variables in complex text files (SO) - some examples using the Linux envsubst command
• SO question - first answer offers a crude Perl alternative to envsubst namely perl -pe 'while (my ($k, $v) = each %ENV) { s/\$$k/$v/g }'

Updated: many references were added long after the original reply was made

👁️🍾👍🦟