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authorPerl 5 Porters <perl5-porters@africa.nicoh.com>1997-03-22 15:34:25 +1200
committerChip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>1997-03-22 15:34:25 +1200
commit3fe9a6f19eb206c685bd7389e54e2838fdfd04b7 (patch)
tree94845bcda5f58956e6c9ccef24340d1b5c93d182 /pod/perlfaq8.pod
parent9a2c4ce3a0904191a580ec822adeb696331d31ce (diff)
downloadperl-3fe9a6f19eb206c685bd7389e54e2838fdfd04b7.tar.gz
[inseparable changes from match from perl-5.003_94 to perl-5.003_95]
CORE LANGUAGE CHANGES Subject: Don't compile scalar mods of aggregates, like C<@a =~ s/a/b/> From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@perl.com> Files: op.c t/op/misc.t Subject: Warn about undef magic values just like non-magic From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@perl.com> Files: ext/Opcode/Safe.pm sv.c t/lib/db-btree.t t/lib/db-hash.t t/lib/db-recno.t t/pragma/locale.t CORE PORTABILITY Subject: Win32 update (five patches) From: Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@engin.umich.edu> Files: MANIFEST README.win32 doio.c dosish.h pp_sys.c lib/ExtUtils/Command.pm t/comp/multiline.t t/op/magic.t t/op/mkdir.t t/op/runlevel.t t/op/stat.t t/op/write.t win32/Makefile win32/config.H win32/config.w32 win32/win32.c win32/win32.h win32/win32aux.c win32/*.mak win32/VC-2.0/*.mak DOCUMENTATION Subject: INSTALL-1.8 to INSTALL-1.9 updates Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 13:52:53 -0500 (EST) From: Andy Dougherty <doughera@fractal.phys.lafayette.edu> Files: INSTALL Msg-ID: Pine.SOL.3.95q.970325135138.3374A-100000@fractal.lafayette.e (applied based on p5p patch as commit 9b1ae96a0b4301a9588f62b3175bc0312302f4b9) Subject: Document possible problems with -Mdiagnostics after upgrade From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@perl.com> Files: INSTALL Subject: Mention perldelta in INSTALL From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@perl.com> Files: INSTALL Subject: Describe pod format at top of INSTALL From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@perl.com> Files: INSTALL Subject: Document C</a *b/x> fix From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@perl.com> Files: pod/perldelta.pod Subject: pods for subroutine argument autovivication Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 07:25:21 +0000 From: "M.J.T. Guy" <mjtg@cus.cam.ac.uk> Files: pod/perldelta.pod pod/perlsub.pod Msg-ID: E0w9489-0005YT-00@ursa.cus.cam.ac.uk (applied based on p5p patch as commit db8878faa51a8a1541a40745a8613adb5db155e4) Subject: Missing item in perldiag Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 09:24:09 +0000 From: "M.J.T. Guy" <mjtg@cus.cam.ac.uk> Files: pod/perldiag.pod Msg-ID: E0w8jVZ-0005va-00@ursa.cus.cam.ac.uk (applied based on p5p patch as commit c00a529017138505fcbe538b74c7884abe1d18e1) Subject: Pod problems & fixes Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 21:31:51 +0100 (MET) From: Hallvard B Furuseth <h.b.furuseth@usit.uio.no> Files: INSTALL lib/Term/Complete.pm lib/subs.pm pod/perlcall.pod pod/perldata.pod pod/perldiag.pod pod/perlembed.pod pod/perlguts.pod pod/perlmod.pod pod/perlop.pod pod/perlpod.pod pod/pod2html.PL Msg-ID: 199703242031.VAA14997@bombur2.uio.no (applied based on p5p patch as commit 55a864fe4cea1a0586891b83d359ba71e0972da5) Subject: FAQ update From: Nathan Torkington <gnat@prometheus.frii.com> Files: pod/perlfaq*.pod OTHER CORE CHANGES Subject: Improve 'prototype mismatch' warning From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@perl.com> Files: global.sym op.c pod/perldiag.pod proto.h sv.c t/comp/redef.t
Diffstat (limited to 'pod/perlfaq8.pod')
-rw-r--r--pod/perlfaq8.pod17
1 files changed, 15 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/pod/perlfaq8.pod b/pod/perlfaq8.pod
index 6ad5c15750..7250afbca5 100644
--- a/pod/perlfaq8.pod
+++ b/pod/perlfaq8.pod
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
=head1 NAME
-perlfaq8 - System Interaction ($Revision: 1.15 $)
+perlfaq8 - System Interaction ($Revision: 1.17 $, $Date: 1997/03/25 18:17:12 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
@@ -379,6 +379,17 @@ easy-to-use approach that internally uses pipe(), fork(), and exec()
to do the job. Make sure you read the deadlock warnings in its
documentation, though (see L<IPC::Open2>).
+=head2 Why can't I get the output of a command with system()?
+
+You're confusing the purpose of system() and backticks (''). system()
+runs a command and returns exit status information (as a 16 bit value
+-- the low 8 bits are the signal the process died from, if any, and
+the high 8 bits are the actual exit value). Backticks ('') run a
+command and return what it sent to STDOUT.
+
+ $status = system("mail-users");
+ $output = `ls`;
+
=head2 How can I capture STDERR from an external command?
There are three basic ways of running external commands:
@@ -437,7 +448,9 @@ process ID of the child. The child exec()s the command to be piped
to/from. The parent can't know whether the exec() was successful or
not - all it can return is whether the fork() succeeded or not. To
find out if the command succeeded, you have to catch SIGCHLD and
-wait() to get the exit status.
+wait() to get the exit status. You should also catch SIGPIPE if
+you're writing to the child -- you may not have found out the exec()
+failed by the time you write. This is documented in L<perlipc>.
On systems that follow the spawn() paradigm, open() I<might> do what
you expect - unless perl uses a shell to start your command. In this