How to Automate VLC player in perl?

[Srijith B]

I want to write a code in perl which automatically opens vlc player and start playing.

I am stuck when I open the vlc player.
I use

SYSTEM("vlc");

But when I execute the lines below this code doesn't not execute.
Is there any other way to open vlc player?

ok, I changed my code
Here is it

#!usr/bin/perl

#exec (vlc);
#print "vlc launched";
$directoryListing = `vlc`;
print $directoryListing;            //opens vlc

print "vlc playinng";

my @keys = ("%{m}", "{ENTER}");
for my $key (@keys){

SendKeys ($key);
}

Problem here is once I execute, the statements after print $directoryListi ng; does not work.

[RonB]

You should have received the following error:

Undefined subroutine &main::SYSTE M called at

Perl is case sensitive.

It's system not SYSTEM

[chorny]

Do a fork and run vlc in fork. `` waits for program to finish.

[Srijith B]

I dont want to wait after I run vlc. I want the below statements to execute after the vlc is opened.
what I get is
The VLC will open and a message "[0x9bfa140] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface." appears in the terminal and the program is waiting for vlc to quit. once the vlc quits(CTRL +C or close vlc using mouse) the rest of the statements execute. Btw I tried forking and had no luck.. same result.
here the forking code

#!usr/bin/perl
$pid = fork();
if( $pid == 0){
system("vlc");
exit 0;
}
print "vlc playinng";

 my @keys = ("%{m}", "{ENTER}");
 for my $key (@keys){
SendKeys ($key);
}

[miller]

The following example with fork does work for me, however, the script won't exit until vlc is closed.

#!usr/bin/perl

use strict;

my $vlc = q{C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe};

unless (fork) {
	system($vlc);
	exit;
}

print "Hello world\n";

Since you're running on a windows machine though, you have the option of using Win32::Process

#!usr/bin/perl

use Win32::Process;

use strict;

my $vlc = q{C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe};

Win32::Process::Create(
	my $processobj,
	$vlc,
	"vlc",
	0,
	NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
	"."
) or die "Can't Create - $!";

print "Hello world\n";

The above will start vlc, and continue to Hello World and exit, leaving vlc running.

- Miller

[Srijith B]

sorry for not mentioning the OS.
I am using Linux ubuntu.
I have a well running vlc automation script in windows.
And yes, I used the same package as the above(Win32::Pr ocess).
But you know that we cant use these in linux.

I am unaware of packages in linux that is to be used.

[miller]

Well, if all else fails, just use & to start the process as an independent daemon.

#!/usr/bin/perl-w
# waitforme.pl

use strict;

my $log = 'waitforme.log';

open my $fh, '>>', $log or die "$log, $!";
for (1..5) {
	print $fh scalar(localtime), " - $_\n";
	sleep 2;
}

and the main script

#!/usr/bin/perl-w
# dontwait.pl

use strict;

my $prog = q{perl waitforme.pl};

system(qq{$prog &});

print "Hello world\n";

- Miller