perl -e problem

dantheman1210 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am running solaris 8 and perl 5.005_02.
Running a simple example as root is successful:

root# perl -e 'print"Hello World\n";'
Hello World
root#
[download]

But running the same example from another user fails:

cnow> perl -e 'print "hello world\n";'
Can't open perl script "-e": Permission denied
cnow>
[download]

I have verified that my cnow user has execute permission for perl:

ls -al /usr/local/bin/perl 
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root     other     818096 Jan 24 2002 /usr/local/bin/pe
+rl*
[download]

And that both root and cnow users are running the same perl executable.
I have also verified that I can run perl as the cnow user with a simple script:

cnow> cat testPerl.pl
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

print "This is a test\n";
cnow> ./testPerl.pl
This is a test
cnow>
[download]

I am at a loss as to why I am getting the permission denied error.
Please help, it is sucking the life out of me!!!

Comment on perl -e problem Select or Download Code

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Re: perl -e problem by dantheman1210 (Beadle) on May 20, 2005 at 22:19 UTC
I figured out the problem!!!!!! My permissions on /devices/pseudo/mm@0:null were too restrictive and ownership was not correct. Changed owner to root:sys and permissions to 666 and all is right with the world. Found it out by doing a man on perl and getting an error of /dev/null: can not create Thank you all for your help, I wouldn't have found it without your suggestions. :)	[reply]
Re^2: perl -e problem by merzy (Scribe) on May 21, 2005 at 03:00 UTC
Glad you found your solution! Next time, try a truss -f -topen perl ... That'll give you a good idea of what files your process is trying to open and will likely point directly at the permissions issue.	[reply]
Re: perl -e problem by benizi (Hermit) on May 22, 2005 at 22:15 UTC
For others' edification, truss : Solaris :: strace : Linux. See: Monitoring and Tracing Unix Processes An strace command to do the same thing as the above truss command would be (sorry if flags aren't portable; strace version 4.5.9): `strace -f -e trace=open perl ...` Thanks for the extremely helpful tip merzy.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: perl -e problem by TheStudent (Scribe) on May 20, 2005 at 21:59 UTC
Hmmm, I find it curious that the argument -e is what is flagged in the error message. It is almost like -e is not being recognized as a argument and being used as a program name instead. Perhaps trying another command line argument like -w or -l and seeing what happens. Lou	[reply]
Re: perl -e problem by samtregar (Abbot) on May 20, 2005 at 21:06 UTC
What shell is cnow running? Is it the same shell as root? -sam	[reply]
Re^2: perl -e problem by dantheman1210 (Beadle) on May 20, 2005 at 21:22 UTC
They are both running tcsh, and I sourced the .tcshrc file to make sure.	[reply]
Re: perl -e problem by ambrus (Abbot) on May 20, 2005 at 21:18 UTC
This error message puzzles me, and I can't really imagine any reason for it. Do check however, whether the minus sign in `-e` is a real minus sign, not just some look-alike character. Update You may also want to check for perl being an alias or perl-function. (In bash, you do that with the command `type perl`.) I recently had some bad experience with a shell function set up in `/etc/profile` I didn't know of.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: perl -e problem by dantheman1210 (Beadle) on May 20, 2005 at 21:50 UTC
Ran this: `cnow> type perl perl is /usr/local/bin/perl` [download] Looks like it is going to the right place.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: perl -e problem by dantheman1210 (Beadle) on May 20, 2005 at 21:24 UTC
I am typing in the command myself, not copy and paste, so can't think of how it could be anything other than a regular minus sign.	[reply]
Re: perl -e problem by Nkuvu (Priest) on May 20, 2005 at 21:07 UTC
How did you verify that both root and the user cnow are calling the same perl executable? I'm guessing `which perl` but you never know...	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: perl -e problem by dantheman1210 (Beadle) on May 20, 2005 at 21:23 UTC
Yes, ran which perl for both and ran with full path to perl as well with the same result.	[reply]
Re: perl -e problem by devnul (Monk) on May 20, 2005 at 21:35 UTC
What happens when you type: `/usr/local/bin/perl -e 'print "Hello world\n";'` [download] - dEvNuL	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: perl -e problem by dantheman1210 (Beadle) on May 20, 2005 at 21:45 UTC
Same result.	[reply]
Re: perl -e problem by devnul (Monk) on May 20, 2005 at 21:40 UTC
... Another thought just occurred to me. I wonder if perl -e 'sfadfdff' attempts to create a temporary file? ... you may want to check permissions and see if you can create temporary files as your cnow user. dEvNuL	[reply]
Re^2: perl -e problem by dantheman1210 (Beadle) on May 20, 2005 at 21:47 UTC
Tried this: `cnow> touch /tmp/nothing cnow> ls -al /tmp/nothing -rw-r--r-- 1 cnow sysadmin 0 May 20 15:53 /tmp/nothing` [download] So I am able to create a tmp file.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: perl -e problem by devnul (Monk) on May 20, 2005 at 21:54 UTC
I do not think that is a sufficient test. I'm not sure what the solaris function is being used, mkstemp, or something like that. It may not even be using the /tmp directory. Perhaps /var/tmp? - dEvNuL	[reply]


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