Calling perl script from a perl script

Question

I want to call a perl script from a perl script with big argument list in a bash shell. The arguments contains special characters such as \, *, (, ) etc. Each of these special characters are guided by single escape character \.

But when I call 2nd perl script (which then calls to a shell script) from 1st perl script the escape character gets evaluated and the special characters are exposed in the shell and hence getting syntax error.

So basically i want to prevent escape character's evaluation when I call 2nd perl script from 1st perl script and it should be evaluated when I call shell script from my 2nd perl script.

Eg. Input to the first perl 'MonitorAdmin' script is :

MonitorAdmin -reversefilter -container="LogServerContainer" -filepath="/home/esg2/YogeshTemp/VSDEFAULT/logs" -filename="System.log" -pattern=".*\t.*\t(DEBUG)\t.*\t.*\t.*\t(SecurityService)\t.*\t.*\t.*\t.*\t.*" -linecount="5001" -targetfile="

I want to avoid adding another escape character to the arguments given to the MonitorAdmin script. — Yogesh
– Yogesh, Commented Dec 9, 2011 at 4:20

Jeff Burdges · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-09 04:44:22Z

2

Perl's exec and system commands won't invoke a shell if you pass them a list with more than one element, but each list element becomes a separate argument then, i.e. spaces don't separate arguments. I'd imagine this works well even when executing a shell script since you aren't invoking the shall with a -c option.

answered Dec 9, 2011 at 4:44

Jeff Burdges

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2 Comments

Yogesh Over a year ago

There are 3 layers involved here, first call goes to MonitorAdmin perl script which executes another perl script like this: system "bash" , "-fc", "2ndPerlScript @ARGV" and then this 2nd perl script accumulate the user argument with the help of getoptions and propagates them to a shell script like this : system "bash", "-fc", "ShellScriptName $ARGUMENT_LIST"

Yogesh Over a year ago

But the problem is that when I pass on the @ARGV list in subsequent calls, the escape characters gets evaluated.

ikegami · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-09 06:54:27Z

1

There are two forms of system, one that executes a shell command (system($shell_cmd)), and one that launches a program (system($program, @args)). As best as we can tell by your light post, you appear to be using the wrong one. All you need is

system('MonitorAdmin2', @ARGV)

There is no shell to "misinterpret" the characters.

answered Dec 9, 2011 at 6:54

ikegami

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2 Comments

Yogesh Over a year ago

Yes this appears to solve the problem about the special characters but now facing another problem viz. I want to pass few more arguments to the MonitorAdmin command along with @ARGV list. How would I do that in this form of 'system' command?

ikegami Over a year ago

@Yogesh, It doesn't have to be an array, much less @ARGV. Just build an expression that returns the appropriate list.

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