[vox-tech] perl question: ENV

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin Jeff Newmiller <jdnewmil@dcn.davis.ca.us> 
> On Wed, 3 Apr 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> 
> > i need access to the shell variable $$.   tried this:
> > 
> > 	my $file = $ENV{$};
> > 
> > which didn't work.  i managed to do it with:
> > 
> > 	my $file = `echo $$`;
> > 
> > but i'm curious -- is there a way to access $$ with the ENV hash?
> 
> I don't think so.  Special shell variables are implemented in the
> commandline interpretation, not in ENV.
 
ahhh... ok, that explains why it didn't work.

> If you were going to access the $th element of the ENV hash, I think you
> would use $ENV{'$'}.
> 
> The getppid() function should obtain the parent process id for you.
 
much more elegant.  thanks!

pete