Perl Stops Processing

Really quick question.  In Perl, if I open a file in notepad
system( "notepad.exe $file" ) ;
Perl stops processes and will not continue until I close notpad.
How can I open the file, and have Perl continue running?

http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/system.html
... the parent process waits for the child process to complete.
The return value is the exit status of the program as returned by the wait c
all.

You want to first fork and run the command in its own thread.

http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/fork.html

$val = fork;
if ( not defined $val ) {
print "Fork failed"
} elsif ($val == 0) {
system('notepad.exe');
exit;
}
...

inthepickle wrote:
>
> Really quick question.  In Perl, if I open a file in notepad
> system( "notepad.exe $file" ) ;
> Perl stops processes and will not continue until I close notpad.
> How can I open the file, and have Perl continue running?

Quick question, slow answer.

Perl will either spawn a shell subprocess and wait for it to complete
(using the system() call as you have described) or start a process and
exit (using a call to exec()).

You may want to take a look at calling fork(), but starting a process
from another process leaves the parent with a big responsibility, and
it's more likely that your Perl program should simply complete all that
it has to do and then

exec "notepad $file";

when it is about to terminate.

HTH,

Rob

From: inthepickle <inthepickle@gmail.com>
> Really quick question.  In Perl, if I open a file in notepad
> system( "notepad.exe $file" ) ;
> Perl stops processes and will not continue until I close notpad.
> How can I open the file, and have Perl continue running?

system(1, 'notepad.exe', $file)

Jenda
===== Jenda@Krynicky.cz === http://Jenda.Krynicky.cz =====
When it comes to wine, women and song, wizards are allowed
to get drunk and croon as much as they like.
-- Terry Pratchett in Sourcery

Jenda Krynicky wrote:
>
> From: inthepickle <inthepickle@gmail.com>
> 
>
> system(1, 'notepad.exe', $file)

Is that documented anywhere Jenda?

Rob

From: Rob Dixon <rob.dixon@gmx.com>
> Jenda Krynicky wrote: 
>
> Is that documented anywhere Jenda?
>
> Rob

perldoc perlport

in the "Alphabetical Listing of Perl Functions" section under
"system".

Jenda
===== Jenda@Krynicky.cz === http://Jenda.Krynicky.cz =====
When it comes to wine, women and song, wizards are allowed
to get drunk and croon as much as they like.
-- Terry Pratchett in Sourcery