CODEWITHSUNDEEP
perlemailpipe
frododot
frododot

Reputation: 127

Shell command syntax errors

2 examples with issues: What is wrong with the following statement syntax (perl newbie):

$mailCmd = sprintf("echo $message | /usr/ucb/mail -s 'X Detected an Invalid Thing' %s", $people_list);

When I do system($mailCmd) or `$mailCmd`, it results in:

sh: syntax error at line 2: `|' unexpected

Another one:

$message = "Invalid STUFF setup for ID $r.  Please correct this ASAP.\n" .
            "Number of thingies  = $uno \n"   .
            "Another thingy      = $id  \n" ;

This produces:

sh: Number: not found
sh: Another: not found

Thanks in advance

Upvotes: 0

Views: 115

Answers (1)

ikegami
ikegami

Reputation: 386331

The direct cause of the first problem is that you are executing the following command because the contents of $message ends in a newline.

echo ...
| /usr/usb/mail ...

Both problems are the result of improper construction of the shell command. Fixed:

use String::ShellQuote qw( shell_quote );
my $echo_cmd = shell_quote('echo', $message);
my $mail_cmd = shell_quote('/usr/ucb/mail',
   '-s' => 'X Detected an Invalid Thing',
   $people_list,
);
system("$echo_cmd | $mail_cmd");

Or avoid echo and the shell entirely:

use IPC::Run3 qw( run3 );
my @cmd = ('/usr/ucb/mail',
   '-s' => 'X Detected an Invalid Thing',
   $people_list,
);
run3 \@cmd, \$message;

Upvotes: 3

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