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Hello everyone. I need some help with environmental...

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Question by Steve
Submitted on 9/26/2003
Related FAQ: Csh Programming Considered Harmful
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Hello everyone.

I need some help with environmental variables for running a Perl script, which contains many system commands.

Usually, when you run scripts on the command line, they inherit the variables you have set up.  But with a cron job, they don't get inherited.  As a result of this, I get many errors from simple commands such as "cp" and "rm".

Anyone who could help me with setting up the /usr/bin/ksh variables, inside my Perl script?

Thanks.

Steve


Answer by jtobey
Submitted on 10/2/2003
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The best solution is to write a wrapper script.  (It may not be a GOOD solution, but it is the BEST solution.)

You probably have a .profile, .login or similar setup that defines your environment variables.  Perl can not read that configuration.  (Or at least SHOULD not.)  And you probably don't want to maintain separate copies of the setup in different languages.  Therefore, all your cron jobs must use the shell that understands your setup script(s).

The wrapper script typically has 2 lines.  For sh-style configurations (and I suppose ksh) it will look like this:

. $HOME/.profile
myscript.pl

For csh-style it would be

#!/bin/csh
source $HOME/.login
myscript.pl

Here I assume that cron correctly sets HOME. If not, you'd better use a full path.

 

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