Hey All!
I've written a Bash script called `clock`, which is called by one of
two symbolic links: `clock-in` and `clock-out`. This script is,
effectively, a time-clock for tracking time spent on various projects
for clients. This script generates a "time card" file, if one does
not exist in my "$HOME/Timecards" folder, and/or appends to the "time
card' file. The file name is the first parameter passed into my
`clock` script. The second parameter is a note to be placed with
either the clock-in or clock-out to give a little detail to the "time
card".
Now, I'm trying to write a Perl script that will open a "time card"
and process it to generate an invoice based on the information in the
"time card" file. However, whenever I try to open any of the time
card files in my Timecards folder, I get the error "Inappropriate
ioctl for device". I've read other posts in this group, as well as
many others, but have not found a solution to this error. I am
pasting the code below for your review, to see if I've made some kind
of odd mistake with the Perl syntax. I've got a lot of programming
experience, but not much with Perl, so I'm just applying my knowledge
of other languages to Perl and trying to learn the syntax as I go.
Please forgive any conventions that I may have used that aren't common
to Perl. Here's the code in question:
######################################################################
# Create a variable to hold the path to the TimeCard files. These #
# should be located in a folder, under the user's home folder, called#
# 'Timecards'. #
######################################################################
$TimeCardsPath = $ENV{'HOME'} . "/Timecards/";
#######################################################################
# Check for command-line arguments. If there are none, call exit()
#
# with the command-line usage error as a parameter.
#
#######################################################################
if ( !defined( $ARGV[0] ) ) {
$ExitStatus = $EX_USAGE;
ExitScript();
} else {
# Let the user know that we are processing the filename that they
passed
# in to the script. Also, this shows the user that we are processing
# TimeCards from a specific directory in their $HOME folder,
according
# to the Bash Environment Variable.
print "Processing: $TimeCardsPath$ARGV[0]\n";
# Declare a variable to hole each line of the TimeCard file.
$Line = "";
# Declare four variables to hold the introductory note, time in, time
out
# and closing note of the clock punch.
$iNote = "";
$TimeIn = "";
$TimeOut = "";
$cNote = "";
# Now, we need to create a file handle to access the TimeCard file.
open ( TIMECARD, $TimeCardsPath . $ARGV[0] ) ||
die $ExitStatus = $EX_NOINPUT;
# Check to see if we were able to open the TimeCard file:
if ( $ExitStatus = $EX_NOINPUT ) {
# We need to let the user know that we were unable to open
# the TimeCard and exit the script.
print "Unable to open the file:\n";
print "\t$TimeCardsPath$ARGV[0]\n";
print "Please make sure that the file exists in the above
path\n";
print "and that you have read access to the file.\n";
print "\nReturned Error:\n\t";
print "$!\n\n";
ExitScript();
} else { # Process the file and create the invoice.
# Implement processing here.
# Close the input file.
close ( TIMECARD );
# Exit the script with normal termination status.
exit ( $EX_OK );
} # End of invoice generation.
} # End of command-line parameter check.
sub ExitScript {
if ( $ExitStatus == 64 ) {
system ( 'clear' );
print "INVOICE GENERATOR v0.6\n";
print "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n";
print "PekinSOFT Systems\n";
print "Copyright(c) 2008\n";
print "\n";
print "\n";
print "USAGE: invoice {TimeCard Filename}\n";
print "\n";
print " TimeCard Filename\tName of the time card for which to
have
an invoice generated.\n";
print "\n";
} else {
exit( $ExitStatus );
} # End of ExitStatus check.
} # End of ExitScript() function.
This code includes everything except my opening comments describing
the script and the definition of my exit status codes, which are taken
directly from `sysexits.h`. In my `die` statement, I'm setting the
ExitStatus variable, which is not something that I see in examples of
the `open` statement...I only see something like: `die "Error
message"`, so I don't know if that's causing the problem or even if
that is a legal statement.
Here is the output that I'm getting when I run the script:
Processing: /home/sean/Timecards/TimeCards
Unable to open the file:
/home/sean/Timecards/TimeCards
Please make sure that the file exists in the above path
and that you have read access to the file.
Returned Error:
Inappropriate ioctl for device
As you can see in the output, the path is displaying correctly, so I
assume that the path is also correct in the `open` statement.
However, in the `open` statement, I am using the concatenation
operator (.) instead of doing like it is in my `print` statements.
Could this be causing the problem?
Steps that I've taken:
1) Checked to make sure that I have no typos in my path and I don't.
2) Checked to make sure that the file exists and it does.
3) Checked to make sure that I have read access to the file and the
Timecards folder, which I do because I
created the folder and the file through my Bash script.
4) Made sure that I have no errors on my file system and I don't.
Any and all help is much appreciated. My system is as follows, in
case this information is useful to you to help me diagnose this error.
Dell Dimension 3000
Intel Pentium IV 3.0 GHz
1 GB DDR-RAM
70 GB HDD
nVidia GE Force FX-5500, 128 MB VRAM
Slackware 12.0
`uname -a`: Linux {HOSTNAME} 2.6.21.5-smp #2 SMP Tue Jun 19 14:58:11
CDT 2007 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
KDE 3.5.7
XOrg Server 1.4.0.90
Thank you very much for any and all assistance you are able to provide
to help me figure this one out. Thankfully, this is just for me and
not for a client.
Cheers,
Sean Carrick
PekinSOFT Systems
PekinSOFT at gmail dot com
http://www.pekinsoft.net/
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