Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jpl-devvax!lwall
From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Patch 9 from outer space (was Re: Force script to use /bin/sh?)
Message-ID: <7113@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 20 Feb 90 00:09:49 GMT
References: <15178@bfmny0.UU.NET> <7105@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <1990Feb18.190513.464@iwarp.intel.com> <15187@bfmny0.UU.NET>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 26

In article <15187@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes:
: Actually we could generalize this even further, like using it in vi(1),
: if Perl respected the "-c" switch like SH and CSH.
: 
: 	perl -c "myscript.pl arg1 arg2..."
: 
: should behave just like
: 
: 	perl myscript.pl arg1 arg2...

Except that the -c argument to sh is a legal sh script, and the -c argument
to csh is a legal csh script.  So the -c argument to perl should be a legal
perl script.  And "myscript.pl arg1 arg2" isn't.

 	perl -c "system 'myscript.pl arg1 arg2...';"

would be legal perl.  Of course, that might end up executing /bin/sh again.

You might say that you want it to act as if it were a shell.  But what if
you say

 	perl -c "myscript.pl arg1 arg2 | myotherscript.pl arg1 arg2"

Should perl handle that?  How much shell syntax do I put into perl?

Larry