tux242 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am having a hard time trying to get my hash of files to copy to work with the code below I actually wanted for the path and the files names to be dumbed down to variables if possible. Thanks.

#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my @FILES = ('file1',' file2');
`cp /home/wbill/lazarus/@FILES .`;

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Hashes or arrays in the command line
by hardburn (Abbot) on Nov 20, 2003 at 18:26 UTC

    You aren't using a hash, but a regular array. What you probably want is in File::Copy.

    use File::Copy;
my @FILES = ('file1', 'file2');
copy( "/home/wbill/lazarus/$_", '.' ) foreach (@FILES);

    [download]

    ----
    I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
    -- Schemer

    : () { :|:& };:

    Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: Hashes or arrays in the command line
by EvdB (Deacon) on Nov 20, 2003 at 18:25 UTC
    The code you posted will try to execute: 
    cp /home/wbill/lazarus/file1  file2 .

    [download]
    You probably want something like: 
    #! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my @FILES = ('file1',' file2');
my $path = "/home/wbill/lazarus";

foreach my $this_file ( @FILES ) {
  `cp $path/$this_file .`;
}

    [download]
    What the foreach does is take every item in the array @FILES and places it in the variable $this_file - which is then used in the backticks

    More likely though you should consider using a module such as File::Copy rather than use backticks - it makes the code less platform dependent.

    --tidiness is the memory loss of environmental mnemonics

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      You probably also want to change 
      my @FILES = ('file1',' file2');

      [download]
      to: 
      my @FILES = ('file1', 'file2');

      [download]
      note the removal of the space in front of file2.

      --tidiness is the memory loss of environmental mnemonics

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      Ok I goofed the file is static like /etc/passwd and I am taking it from a backup sub directory and the server is the variable that changes not the file itself, so it should be like:

      #! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my @SERVERS = ('sneezy','sleepy','dopey','grumpy');
my $path = "/home/backup/";

foreach my $this_server ( @SERVERS ) {
  `cp $path/$this_server/etc/passwd .`;
}

      [download]

      Does this lokk right??

[reply]
[d/l]
        It looks fine.

        If you want to do a sanity check try doing this: 

        foreach my $this_server ( @SERVERS ) {
  my $command = "cp $path/$this_server/etc/passwd .";
  warn "Will execute '$command'\n";
  # system ($command); # uncomment when ready.
}

        [download]

        --tidiness is the memory loss of environmental mnemonics

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: Hashes or arrays in the command line
by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Nov 20, 2003 at 18:26 UTC
    tux242,
    You mean something like this: 
    #!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use File::Copy;

my @files = qw( file1 file2 );
my $base = '/home/wbill/lazarus/';

for my $file_name (@files) {
    my $file = $base . $file_name;
    copy( $file , "./$file_name" ) or warn "Unable to copy $file_name 
+: $!";
}

    [download]
    Cheers - L~R
[reply]
[d/l]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom