Problem with files read to array split on empty lines

jhoop has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am puzzled. I have a script that should split a bunch of input files' contents by empty lines, however the same script that works in my local machine doesn't work on the same files when executed from the server install I want to run it from. The code below splits every file into 2 parts when run from the server - the split occurring only at the first break of multiple text blocks separated by blank lines.. When run from my local install it operates properly. I'm new to running scripts from a remote install, but I can't figure out what the issue is.. Any help much appreciated!

my @mailfiles = </path/to/files/*>;

foreach my $file (@mailfiles){
    my @text_blocks;

    open TEXT, '<', $file or die "could not open $file";
    my $text;
    while (<TEXT>){
            $text .= $_;
               } 

        @text_blocks = split(/\n{2,}/, $text);
        close TEXT;
       
        #also tried the method below with similar results
        #{
        #    local $/ = '';
        #    @text_blocks = <TEXT>;
        #}
        #close TEXT;

        print scalar(@text_blocks);

        }
[download]

prints '2222' when run on the server, '4426' at home when run on the same four files.

edit: I should have mentioned that the break between the first and second text block (the only point where the server script splits properly) is the break between the header and body of an email message read to the file by mail::imapclient. The rest of the blank lines are inside the body of the original email message.

Comment on Problem with files read to array split on empty lines Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Problem with files read to array split on empty lines by tobyink (Canon) on Aug 03, 2012 at 05:59 UTC
Are you sure the files are identical? Look at their file sizes. Do they perhaps have different line endings? `\n` versus `\r\n`. `perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Problem with files read to array split on empty lines by jhoop (Acolyte) on Aug 03, 2012 at 06:05 UTC
I believe so but I can't say for sure. The copies on server are the originals, I pulled them to the home machine to test them after the script didn't work as expected. Windows does claim two of them are slightly less (-.01k) in size.	[reply]
Re^3: Problem with files read to array split on empty lines by tobyink (Canon) on Aug 03, 2012 at 06:37 UTC
How did you transfer them? FTP? Many FTP clients will choose to transfer some files (often using the file name as a hint as to whether it's appropriate) in "ASCII mode" which means that it will change the line to the standard line endings for the local system during transfer. Try replacing your `/\n{2,}/` regular expression with: `/(?:\r?\n\|\r){2,}/` [download] ... which should match two or more occurrences of any common line ending. `perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Problem with files read to array split on empty lines by jhoop (Acolyte) on Aug 03, 2012 at 19:12 UTC
Re: Problem with files read to array split on empty lines by davido (Cardinal) on Aug 03, 2012 at 07:39 UTC
What operating system were the files created on? What operating system is your local server running, and what operating system is the remote system running? Write a small script that slurps a file, and then uses `tr/\015//` and `tr/\012//` to count independently how many carriage returns and line-feeds the files have. You might find that at least one of the files has line endings that are incompatible with one of the operating systems you're using. Perl's `\n` is a logical newline, that can consist of `\012`, `\015\012`, or `\015`, depending on which OS your script is running under (*nix, Win, or Mac). If the file was created or edited on an OS that uses different line endings, you could get errant behavior when reading and dealing with the file. perlport Dave	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Problem with files read to array split on empty lines by jhoop (Acolyte) on Aug 03, 2012 at 19:19 UTC
Thanks very much for the input. The files were created on the same Linux server on which the script was originally attempted. They were downloaded to my Win7 machine via the cPanel web UI. I will test your suggestions on the remote system and report back. I do not imagine it would do much good to test it on the local system, because if tobyink is correct the line endings could have been converted upon downloading the files.	[reply]
Re: Problem with files read to array split on empty lines by frozenwithjoy (Priest) on Aug 03, 2012 at 05:45 UTC
Can you please tell us which versions of perl you have locally vs remotely? ( `perl -v` )	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Problem with files read to array split on empty lines by jhoop (Acolyte) on Aug 03, 2012 at 05:51 UTC
local: 5.14.2 - remote: 5.008008	[reply]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom