CGI Printing issue

Question

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use CGI qw(:all);
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
use strict; 
print "Content-type: text/plain\n";
print "\n";

my $date = system('date');

print "Date :: $date";

The above code keeps producing the output of Date :: 0 instead of the current date.
I can't find any solution for this problem. Please help.

`system` returns the status code of the executed command, not the output. You could use the backticks instead. — dgw, Nov 17 '15 at 09:42
And the title is misleading. This ist not a problem with CGI, it is a problem capturing the output of an external command. — dgw, Nov 17 '15 at 09:44
Searching within SO should give you enough input ... for example [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/799968/whats-the-difference-between-perls-backticks-system-and-exec) — dgw, Nov 17 '15 at 09:58

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

2

Instead of using system command, use backtick. system command doesn't return value in a variable. Change this line:

my $date = system('date');

to

my $date = `date`;

See this for more understanding about system and backtick: https://stackoverflow.com/a/800105/4248931

edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

Community

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answered Nov 17 '15 at 09:59

serenesat

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score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

1

The return value of the system command is the return value of the call. For a successful call this will be 0. If you want to capture the output of a command use backticks or IPC. Look at this answer: Capture the output of Perl system()

my $date = `date`;

print "Date :: $date";

But better would be to use DateTime.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

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answered Nov 17 '15 at 09:58

bolav

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DateTime is not in the Perl core. To get a textual representation of the date, it's enough to simply call `localtime`. – simbabque Nov 17 '15 at 10:01

CGI Printing issue

2 Answers2