Try passing $safe as a parameter to backThatThangUp(). Also, the ampersand before the function name is really not used anymore, and is supposed to denote that you wish to turn off prototyping. Anyway, try passing $safe as a parameter, and add the following line at the beginning of the function:
my $safe = $_[0]; but if this is the case, then you also need to pass @directories to your function (I would recommend passing a reference). -----Original Message----- From: Charlotte Oliver [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 12:30 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: Cannot get shell to copy directories from within a Perl script Hello all -- The script I'm working on is here: #!/usr/bin/perl # A script to back up all of the important information on <servername>. # Written by: Charlotte M. Oliver # Written on: 11/13/02 use strict; # Be pedantic. my ($safe, $getDirs, $backThatThangUp, @directories, $copy); $safe = '/mnt/hd/backups/'; # Where do we want to back up to? Consistency! &getDirs; &backThatThangUp; sub getDirs { # A subroutine that parses the directories in backUpDirs and reads them into an array. @directories = `cat ./backUpDirs` or die "Can't Open Back-up Directory File: $!"; } sub backThatThangUp { # The subroutine that actually backs up the directories to $safe. foreach (@directories) { $copy = `cp -Rp $_ $safe`; print $copy; } } I've gotten &getDirs working properly, but I am having some problems with &backThatThangUp. There may be a better way to do this within Perl, but I'm not aware of it. :) When I run this script, I get this: cmoliver@<server>:~/scripts/backup$ perl backup.pl cp: missing destination file Try `cp --help' for more information. sh: /mnt/hd/backups/: is a directory cp: missing destination file Try `cp --help' for more information. sh: /mnt/hd/backups/: is a directory (repeated a few more times -- once for each element in the array) However, I can run the identical command on the command line and the shell copies the files over to $safe. I have also tried using File::Copy, but found that it doesn't copy over directories and doesn't seem to handle arrays very well. It's quite possible that I was using it incorrectly, though. I just began with Perl a week or two ago -- can someone help point me in the right direction? --- Charlotte Oliver Junior Systems Engineer Case Design/Remodeling, Inc. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
