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Author FAQ 8.28 How can I call backticks without shell processing?
PerlFAQ Server

2005-05-28, 8:56 pm

This message is one of several periodic postings to comp.lang.perl.misc
intended to make it easier for perl programmers to find answers to
common questions. The core of this message represents an excerpt
from the documentation provided with Perl.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

8.28: How can I call backticks without shell processing?

This is a bit tricky. You can't simply write the command like this:

@ok = `grep @opts '$search_string' @filenames`;

As of Perl 5.8.0, you can use open() with multiple arguments. Just like
the list forms of system() and exec(), no shell escapes happen.

open( GREP, "-|", 'grep', @opts, $search_string, @filenames );
chomp(@ok = <GREP> );
close GREP;

You can also:

my @ok = ();
if (open(GREP, "-|")) {
while (<GREP> ) {
chomp;
push(@ok, $_);
}
close GREP;
} else {
exec 'grep', @opts, $search_string, @filenames;
}

Just as with system(), no shell escapes happen when you exec() a list.
Further examples of this can be found in "Safe Pipe Opens" in perlipc.

Note that if you're use Microsoft, no solution to this vexing issue is
even possible. Even if Perl were to emulate fork(), you'd still be
stuck, because Microsoft does not have a argc/argv-style API.



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