How do I get both the return value and text? backticks vs. system()

flymolo has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question: ⭐ (programs and processes)

`some command` will give me the text of the executed program. system("command") will return the return value, but running the program twice might change text and/or return values. Is there any easy way to do this? Right now I'm thinking system("command >file") but then I'd have a file I don't need.

Originally posted as a Categorized Question.

Comment on How do I get both the return value and text? backticks vs. system()

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Re: How do I get both the return value and text? backticks vs. system() by chromatic (Archbishop) on Jun 21, 2000 at 08:02 UTC
Use backticks to get output from an executed program. Check $? for the error returned. A pipe would work in this case, but backticks are probably simpler. Originally posted as a Categorized Answer.	[reply]
Re: Answer: How do I get both the return value and text? backticks vs. system() by david2008 (Scribe) on Sep 09, 2013 at 14:42 UTC
Update: I got confused between $? and $!. Sorry Hi I suspect that we can not rely on $? alone. From this perlmonks post $! having a non-false value is not an indication anything is wrong. BR, David	[reply]
Re: How do I get both the return value and text? backticks vs. system()⭐ by lhoward (Vicar) on Jun 21, 2000 at 02:00 UTC
open has a piping syntax that you can use to pipe data to or from a program. You can get the exit value from $? (see perlvar). `open P,"command \|" or die "error running command $!"; my @data=<p>; close P; my $exit_value=$? >> 8;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How do I get both the return value and text? backticks vs. system() by Archon810 (Initiate) on Apr 30, 2008 at 01:42 UTC
Having used the new Perl 5.10, I was shocked to find this new variable after months of use: `${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}` [download] This variable gives the native status returned by the last pipe close, backtick command, successful call to wait() or waitpid(), or from the system() operator. See perlrun for details. (Contributed by Gisle Aas.) New internal variables Finally!.. what else can I say?	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How do I get both the return value and text? backticks vs. system() by jffry (Hermit) on Feb 14, 2006 at 23:34 UTC
If you especially don't want the shell interpreting shell metacharacters, then don't pass the command to the shell, use the 4+ argument form of `open`. `open(CMD, '-\|', '/usr/bin/ls', '$4', '$PATH'); my $output = do { local $/; <CMD> }; close CMD; print "$output\n";` [download] Here is the output, you'll see that the "$4" and "$PATH" were not interpreted as variables before being sent to `ls`. `ls: 0653-341 The file $4 does not exist. ls: 0653-341 The file $PATH does not exist.` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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