A 'do' statement at the end of my perl script never runs

Question

In my main script, I am doing some archive manipulation. Once I have completed that, I want to run a separate script to upload my archives to and FTP server.

Separately, these scripts work well. I want to add the FTP script to the end of my archive script so I only need to worry about scheduling one script to run and I want to guarantee that the first script completes it work before the FTP script is called.

After looking at all the different methods to call my FTP script, I settled on 'do', however, when my do statement is at the end of the script, it never runs. When I place it in my main foreach loop, it runs fine, but it runs multiple times which I want to avoid since the FTP script can handle having multiple archives to upload.

Is there something I am missing? Why does it not run?

Here is the relivant code:

chdir $input_dir;
@folder_list = <*>;
foreach $file (@folder_list)
{
    if($file =~ m/.*zip/)
    {
    print "found $file\n";
    print "Processing Files...\n";
        mkdir 'BuildDir';
        $new_archive = Archive::Zip->new();
        $archive_name = $file;
        $zip = Archive::Zip->new($file);
        $zip->extractTree('', $build_dir);
        &Process_Files;
    }
}
do 'ArchiveToFTPServer.pl';
print "sending files to FTP server";

Thanks

I ended up copying and pasting the FTP code into the main file as a sub. It works fine when I call it at the end of the foreach loop.

Hard to debug when can't see code. But I'm gonna guess that you have an exit up above the end of the loop. Maybe the code is so complex that it is not clear that you ever reach the end normally? — MJB, Apr 06 '10 at 17:43
No, I do not have an exit anywhere in the code. In fact, I placed a print statement in the same location and it printed. — joejoeson, Apr 06 '10 at 17:45

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 06 '10 at 17:54

Check out the docs for the do 'function'.

In there, you'll find a code sample:

unless ($return = do $file) {
  warn "couldn't parse $file: $@" if $@;
  warn "couldn't do $file: $!" unless defined $return;
  warn "couldn't run $file" unless $return;
}

I suggest putting this code in to find out what's happening with your do call. In addition, try adding warnings and strict to your code to weed out any subtle bugs.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 06 '10 at 17:49

1

Add these lines to your scripts:

use strict;
use warnings;

You will now get more diagnostic information, which should lead you to the solution. My current bet is that you are not specifying the correct path to the other script, or that it is missing a shebang line.

answered Apr 06 '10 at 17:49

Ether

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the script is local to the main script. The shebang line is probably correct. let me try that and get back to you. – joejoeson Apr 06 '10 at 17:52
One issue with that solution though, it does not explain why the do statment is executed if I place it before the foreach block. – joejoeson Apr 06 '10 at 17:54
I just looked. the shebang is there. – joejoeson Apr 06 '10 at 18:04
@Jeremy: something in the for loop is aborting your script, but you should get a better idea of what is happening with strict-checking and warnings enabled. – Ether Apr 06 '10 at 18:24
All strict did was complain that I was not namespacing my variables. – joejoeson Apr 06 '10 at 18:30

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 06 '10 at 17:45

0

What's the call to the new script? If using a shell, did you check your environment variables?

answered Apr 06 '10 at 17:45

Tim Green

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A 'do' statement at the end of my perl script never runs

3 Answers3