in reply to •Re: mmv-like hack in perl?
in thread mmv-like hack in perl?

Thank you for your help. I think I'm still having a problem with the line:

s/$pattern/qq{$replace}/eeg;

Here's the snippet that's failing:

# get strings from GUI.  
my $old = my $new = $_->children->get; # get old filename
my $pattern = $form->{'entry2'}->get_text();
# e.g. $pattern == "^(\d{2})\. (.*)$" after this
my $replace = $form->{'entry1'}->get_text();
# e.g. $replace == "two-$2, one-$1" after this

# is the following match necessary? $1, etc
# need to be assigned somehow...
if($old =~ /$pattern/) {
    $new =~ s/$pattern/qq{$replace}/eeg;
    print STDERR $old." => ".$new."\n";
}

[download]

After the $new =~ line, $new is empty, every time. Am I missing something? Thanks again

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•Re: Re: •Re: mmv-like hack in perl?
by merlyn (Sage) on Apr 14, 2003 at 10:13 UTC 
    $new = $old;
$new =~ s/$pattern/qq{$replace}/eeg;

    [download]
    But you're scaring me here. I said that the string had to be from a trusted source. As soon as you start talking "GUI", that makes me think that the user-ID of the person typing the string is not necessarily the user-ID of the person running the code.

    Let me reemphasize. Using this code as-is will allow any arbitrary Perl code to be executed, including shelling out to execute arbitrary system commands. Clear? It's not just about mangling a string. You must either trust the invoker, or not use this code.

    -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
    Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

[reply]
[d/l]
      Perfectly clear. That's what I want to do, because this is just a toy for me to play with. I don't plan on releasing this piece of my junky code. I will likely end up parsing it myself as Aristotle suggests below. If something clever comes out, I will post that bit of code, of course.

      Thanks again.

[reply]

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