Re: script assistance please

[hippo]

Some guidance, as requested:

1. use strict
2. use warnings
3. indent your code to improve legibility
4. ... and maybe some whitespace within the lines might help too
5. comment your code liberally
6. use the 3-argument form of open
7. check your return values from open()
8. use lexical filehandles
9. don't assign to @_ without good reason
10. go through the (rest of the) Basic debugging checklist

If you do all that, you'll be in a much better place to determine where you are going wrong.

[marinersk]

I'm out of votes for the day, but if I could, I would ++hippo for each of the following items from that checklist which were part of my troubleshooting steps:

1, 3, 4, 7, 10

I would further point out that things I had either intended to do, or would have done with my own work, include:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10

The only item missing is #8, and I don't use those merely out of habit -- but I do ensure every handle is unique globally, which is a less foolproof system, but due to my own rigorous adherence to my own standards, has never failed me in a few decades of using Perl. :-)

[karlgoethebier]

"..I don't use those merely out of habit...ensure every handle is unique globally...due to my own rigorous adherence...never failed me in a few decades..."

The day will come...even after decades of luck. This applies also to the misuse of @_.

Best regards, Karl

[marinersk]

I agree. The stance is academically indefensible.

It is, nonetheless, an honest appraisal.