Well, it returns null because when you try to escape in that string, that's perls escape that your using, not XP's excape. A way around this might be (i dunno, never tried this before):
system("cd C:/Program Files/GNU/Octave/2.1.50/"); $result= `bin -q my_script.m`; If that doesn't work then setup windows to have files with .m on the end be run by 'C:\Program Files\GNU\Octave\2.1.50\bin'. Here is how: Goto 'My Computer' Click 'Tools' Click 'Folder options' A dialog shoudl come up, click the 'File types' tab. When the list of registered file extensions finishes loading, click 'New' Type 'm' in the box then hit 'enter' The new file extension should be at the top of the list selected, if it isn't, just select it. Click 'advanced' a dialog shoudl open. in the first box type 'Octave script' click 'new' type 'open' in the first box of the new dialog in the second dialog, type (yes type the double-quotes, but not thhe signle ones) ' "C:\Program Files\GNU\Octave\2.1.50\bin -q" %1 ' click 'ok' click 'ok' again click 'ok' again again! Done. Pinchy Charlie PS: Reckon this is pretty good for a 9 year old? "P Libardi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Hi! I've written a perl cgi script to create a web page. Now what I'd like to do is to execute an Octave script from the Perl one and get its output inside my perl script. I'm working on a Windows XP machine. I tried $result = `C:/Program\ Files/GNU\ Octave\ 2.1.50/bin -q my_script.m`; but $result is still null. The octave script runs correctly if I use it in the Gnu Octave shell. Any help would be really appreciated. Paolo __________________________________________________________________ Tiscali ADSL SENZA CANONE: Attivazione GRATIS, contributo adesione GRATIS, modem GRATIS, 50 ore di navigazione GRATIS. ABBONARTI TI COSTA SOLO UN CLICK! http://point.tiscali.it/adsl/index.shtml -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>