http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1005013

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

I have a setup file that has to be run silently like:

./setup < answerFile >> logfile

Where answerFile is basically has the input to the setup:

1 /path/to/install Company Name etc...

Is there a way in perl to open the command for input and print the answers to each question?

my $setup = "./setup"; my $answerFile = "./AnswerFile"; my $logFile = "./log"; open (IN, "<$answerFile") || die "can't open $answerFile: $!"; my @answerFile = <IN>; close IN; my $i=0; open (SETUP, "| $setup") || die "can't run $setup: $!"; while(<SETUP>) { # stuff gets printed out then a question is displayed # want to answer the question from $answerFile # perhaps: print SETUP $answerFile[$i++]; } close SETUP;

Running the setup without the answerFile produces something lilke:

================================================================= foo Server Installation, build spf-14-3-0_12326 ================================================================= WARNING: NIS Detected. Please ensure that the services entry uses files, otherwise this installation of foo Server Installation may no +t function correctly. WARNING: sudo is not installed or not on path. foo Loader will not be able to login as anyone other than the current user. Checking for existing installations... Please choose from one of the options listed below. 1. New Installation (default) 2. Upgrade /tril21/workarea/12/server 3. Upgrade /tril21/workarea/13.5/server Enter choice (1-3): $answerFile[0] Please enter the name of your organization: $answerFile[1] Where would you like to install foo Server? : $answerFile[2]

Is this even possible to do like this?

Currently - I'm just running a system on the command like so:

system ("$setup < $answerFile");

Which I do not think is ideal

Any guidance would be very appreciated.