[vox-tech] quoting question in perl

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin Micah Cowan <micah@cowanbox.com> 
> On Thu, Dec 20, 2001 at 05:06:29PM -0800, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > if you have:
> > 
> > system("rm $filename");
> > 
> > and $filename = "a file", you get an error because you're trying to delete
> > two files, "a" and "file".
> > 
> > what's the proper way of quoting $filename so that the shell sees the file
> > "a file" and not the two non-existant files "a" and "file"?
> > 
> > pete
> 
> Well, the direct answer to your question would be to use:
> 
>   system("rm '$filename'");
> 
> or something similar so that the shell sees the quoting.
 
cool.  i didn't know that the shell would see $filename when it's enclosed in
single forward quotes.

> But if you actually want to delete a file, why not use Perl's builtin
> unlink() function instead? i.e.:
 
ahh.  i was using rm as an example for a more general question.  :)

thanks!

pete

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