Re: Using eval: $@ isn't returning the error I expect

[pryrt]

This might help:

$ perl -le 'eval { "use gobbledygook;" }; print "ok"'
ok
$ perl -le 'eval { use gobbledygook; }; print "ok"'
Can't locate gobbledygook.pm in @INC ...
$  perl -le 'eval "use gobbledygook;"; print "msg = ($@)" if $@; print
+ "ok"'
msg = (Can't locate gobbledygook.pm in @INC ...)
ok

What you were doing was evaluating the code (the braces make it a code block) that contains a non-empty string; the non "0", non-empty string evaluates true, and the eval block doesn't error, so $@ doesn't get set. What you need to do is either evaluate block of real code in braces, or evaluate a string, not evaluate a string inside a block of code. The second and third in my example both try to use the module; the first (equivalent to your code) does not try to load the module.

[doctormelodious]

Thanks, pryrt

I tried this:

$ perl -le 'eval "use cPanelUserConfig;"; print "msg = ($@)" if $@; print "ok"'

and got this error:

syntax error at /Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/orders/orderFormSalesDisplayPreRollout.cgi line 13, near "$ perl "

I don't think I'm correctly translating what you typed, into a literal line for my script. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thanks again.

[haukex]

The $ perl -le ... indicates that this is a command typed at the command line (as a demo), not something you should simply copy & paste into your script as a whole line - the code is inside the single quotes after the -e switch here (see also perlrun).

[doctormelodious]

D'oh! Of course, that was a command line command... And yes, I did try just the part in single quotes in my script. Finally figured out via another comment here that it needed to go into a BEGIN block, due to the nature of its use on the host server. Problem solved. Thanks!