* $Bill Luebkert <dbecoll@[...].net>  [2005:10:28:07:21:26-0700] scribed:
>  I ran it like this and it seems OK, but I don't have the same conditions:

There's the rub ;> 

>  use diagnostics;
>  use strict;
>  use warnings;
>  
>  my $prog = "E:/usr/ov/bin/nvhotbackup.bat";
>  my $dir = 'E:/backup';
>  
>  if (not -d $dir) {
>  	mkdir $dir or die "mkdir $dir: $! ($^E)";
>  }

I have cut-pasted your exact code.  Please, recognize that my real code
does use tests of this nature.

Also, please, notice the anomaly I tried to describe in my last post,
regarding whether or not this directory actually gets created (see
below.)

>  my $dest = timestamp ();
>  if (not -d "$dir/$dest") {
>  	mkdir "$dir/$dest" or die "mkdir $dir/$dest: $! ($^E)";
>  }
>  
>  do_prog ($prog, $dir, $dest);
>  
>  exit 0;
>  
>  # Run system command & return exit code
>  
>  sub do_prog {
>  	my ($prog, $dir, $dest) = @_;
>  
>  $dir =~ s!/!\\!g;	# this one you definitely need
>  $prog =~ s!/!\\!g;	# this may be optional

This is _not_ required, since MS Windows 2003 Server _does_ follow
forward slashes in cmd shell.

>  my $cmd = qq{$prog "$dir" $dest};
>  print "CMD == ", $cmd, "\n";
>  
>  # my $null = "NUL";
>  # system "$cmd >$null 2>&1";
>  
>  system $cmd;		# seems OK

Again, I get the same results that I have always had at this point.
Your code has not affected my results ;<

>  # my @res = `$cmd`;	# also tried this OK
>  #print "res='@res'\n";

The reason that this is *not* an option is, I need to use the exit codes
from the call to batch file.

>  }
>  
>  # Get date & time string
>  
>  sub timestamp {
>  	@_ = localtime ($_[0] ? shift : time);
>  return sprintf "%d%02d%02d%02d%02d%02d", $_[5]+1900, $_[4]+1, $_[3], $_[2],
>    $_[1], $_[0];
>  
>  }
>  
>  __END__
>  
>  > 
>  > [A] As is, $prog fails like this:
>  > 
>  >       Invalid switch - "backup\20051028070933".
>  > 
>  >     Nevertheless, $dir/$dest *DOES* get created.
>  
>  That's because you do a mkdir in the script ??
<snip /> 

Please, understand: Whenever I use back-slashes -- however many, however
quoted do far -- this directory does *NOT* get created!  Nor does the
Perl code die at the mkdir test ?!?!

Here are my two (2) basic problems:

[A] The called batch file will not accept a file path with
    forward-slashes; and

[B] When I pass the directory string _with_ back-slashes, the mkdir :
    - does *NOT* create a directory;
    - does *NOT* die nor croak any warning;
    - function is passed and do_prog() *IS* called;
    Of course, since the batch file concatenates $dir and $dest into a
    directory path, into which it tries to copy many files, the batch
    file *ALWAYS* fails, because there is *NO* directory into which
    those files can be copied.

Yes, I know that this is confusing; and I am quite befuddled ;<

Here is information on my development workstation:
    System Information:
    OS Name    MS Windows XP Professional
    Version    5.1.2600 SP 1 Build 2600

C:\> perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.7 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 7 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

Copyright 1987-2005, Larry Wall

Binary build 813 [148120] provided by ActiveState
http://www.ActiveState.com
ActiveState is a division of Sophos.
Built Jun  6 2005 13:36:37


What do you think?

-- 
Best Regards,

mds
mds resource
877.596.8237
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Dare to fix things before they break . . .
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Our capacity for understanding is inversely proportional to how much
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