Perl newb in need of help with script.

[David K. Worman]

So this is probably a simple thing I'm missing, but then I just started
working with perl tonight - and of course I bought the Camel book, and
conveniently left it at work on my desk where it does me no good.

What I'm trying to do is this; I have a single document (template.doc)
that I need a copy of for ~50 people currently, and rather than just
copying it 50 times and renaming them I decided to play with perl instead.

This is what I've come up with so far, going from memory of what I read in
the Camel book thus far.


#!/usr/bin/perl -w

$UNAMES = "unames.txt ";
open(UNAMES) || die "Can't open $UNAMES: $!n";

while (<UNAMES>) {
$src = "template\.doc" ;
($dest = $_) =~ s/\w*/$_\.doc/;
system("cp $src $dest");
}
close(UNAMES);
die();

----

The file 'unames.txt' is just a \n delimited text file like so:

foo
bar
foo_bar

The result I get when running the script is three copies of template.doc
(this is good!) named foo, bar, and foo_bar (this is bad!) instead of
foo.doc, etc.

Can anyone point out what I'm sure is a simple mistake? Thanks in
advance.

--
dkw
ackhayman@hotma il.com

[Jürgen Exner]

Re: Perl newb in need of help with script.

David K. Worman wrote:[color=blue]
> So this is probably a simple thing I'm missing, but then I just
> started working with perl tonight - and of course I bought the Camel
> book, and conveniently left it at work on my desk where it does me no
> good.
>
> What I'm trying to do is this; I have a single document
> (template.doc) that I need a copy of for ~50 people currently, and
> rather than just copying it 50 times and renaming them I decided to
> play with perl instead.
>
> This is what I've come up with so far, going from memory of what I
> read in the Camel book thus far.
>
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl -w[/color]

Good.
You should also enable strictures:
use strict;
[color=blue]
> $UNAMES = "unames.txt ";
> open(UNAMES) || die "Can't open $UNAMES: $!n";[/color]

Good!
[color=blue]
> while (<UNAMES>) {
> $src = "template\.doc" ;[/color]

Your problem is that each line contains a trailing newline at this point.
You want to remove this using

chomp;
[color=blue]
> ($dest = $_) =~ s/\w*/$_\.doc/;[/color]

Otherwise you will be creating files that are named like "MyName\n.d oc"
[color=blue]
> system("cp $src $dest");[/color]

No need to shell out a system process for a simple copy.
Just use the File::Copy module.

jue

[David K. Worman]

Re: Perl newb in need of help with script.

Thanks! Got it working now. Appreciate the help =)

--
dkw


On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, wrote:
[color=blue]
>
>
> David K. Worman wrote:[color=green]
> > So this is probably a simple thing I'm missing, but then I just
> > started working with perl tonight - and of course I bought the Camel
> > book, and conveniently left it at work on my desk where it does me no
> > good.
> >
> > What I'm trying to do is this; I have a single document
> > (template.doc) that I need a copy of for ~50 people currently, and
> > rather than just copying it 50 times and renaming them I decided to
> > play with perl instead.
> >
> > This is what I've come up with so far, going from memory of what I
> > read in the Camel book thus far.
> >
> >
> > #!/usr/bin/perl -w[/color]
>
> Good.
> You should also enable strictures:
> use strict;
>[color=green]
> > $UNAMES = "unames.txt ";
> > open(UNAMES) || die "Can't open $UNAMES: $!n";[/color]
>
> Good!
>[color=green]
> > while (<UNAMES>) {
> > $src = "template\.doc" ;[/color]
>
> Your problem is that each line contains a trailing newline at this point.
> You want to remove this using
>
> chomp;
>[color=green]
> > ($dest = $_) =~ s/\w*/$_\.doc/;[/color]
>
> Otherwise you will be creating files that are named like "MyName\n.d oc"
>[color=green]
> > system("cp $src $dest");[/color]
>
> No need to shell out a system process for a simple copy.
> Just use the File::Copy module.
>
> jue
>
>
>[/color]