CFS264 ‐ Computer and Operating Systems Fundamentals II Page 1 of 4

Handout 8 - How to Program in Perl

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Following the steps introduced in Handout1 to log onto the host metrostate.mooo.com, then try the content
discussed below. Please create a directory lab8 for the following exercises.

How to Program in Perl

 The Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language) programming is mainly used for working with text.
 Perl was created by Larry Wall, a computer programmer and author, in 1987.
 Perl uses syntax and concepts from awk, sed, C, the Bourne Shell, Smalltalk, Lisp, and English.
 Perl is a scripting language.
 Perl is often used to scan and extract information from text files and generate reports based on that information.
 Perl is also heavily used for system administration, software development, and general-purpose programming.
 Since Perl has been implemented on many operating systems, Perl programming code is portable.
 Perl is an informal, practical, robust, easy-to-use, efficient, complete, and down-and-dirty language that
supports procedural and object-oriented programming.
 Perl is also introduced in Chapter 11 of your Linux book.
 Perl can be invoked in the following ways:
1) From the command line (the –e option is used to lead a single argument program on the command line; the
perl program is enclosed within single quotation marks)
$ perl –e ‘print “Hello, Metro State!\n”’
Hello, Metro State!
$
2) Also from the command line, type perl to start an interactive Perl session, then end the session with Ctrl-D.
Pay attention the “;” at the end of each line.
$ perl
print "Hello, ";
print "Metro ";
print "State!";
print "\n";
^D
Hello, Metro State!
$
3) A Perl script is invoked by perl from the command line (the script itself is not executable)
$ cat > myperl2.pl
print “Hello, Metro State!\n”;
^D
$
$ perl myperl2.pl
Hello, Metro State!
$
4) To make a Perl script itself as an executable file. (This is the preferred mothed in this handout.)
$ cat > myperl3.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
print “Hello, Metro State!\n”
^D
$
$ chmod +x myperl3.pl
$ ./myperl3.pl
Hello, Metro State!
$
 As used in other scripting languages, the #! at the start of the first line of the file directs the shell to
pass the rest of the file to /usr/bin/perl for execution;
 Option –w tells Perl to issue warning messages when it identifies potential errors in the code.

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CFS264 ‐ Computer and Operating Systems Fundamentals II Page 2 of 4
Handout 8 - How to Program in Perl
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 Perl special characters

The table below lists some of the characters that are special within strings in Perl. Perl interpolates these
characters when they appear between double quotation marks but not when they appear between single
quotation marks.
Character When within double quotation marks, interpolated as
\0xx (zero) The ASCII character whose octal value is xx
\a An alarm (bell or beep) character (ASCII 7)
\e An ESCAPE character (ASCII 27)
\n A NEWLINE character (ASCII 10)
\r A RETURN character (ASCII 13)
\t A TAB character (ASCII 9)

 Example 1: How to read a system file and then display its contents using a loop
$ cat > myperl4.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
while ( $line = <> ) {
print $line;
}
^D
$
$ chmod +x myperl4.pl
$ ./myperl4.pl < /etc/shells
# /etc/shells: valid login shells
/bin/sh
/bin/bash
/usr/bin/bash
/bin/rbash
/usr/bin/rbash
/bin/dash
/usr/bin/dash
/usr/bin/tmux
/usr/bin/screen
$
 <> is a short writing for <STDIN>, the standard input.
 Example 2: If you only want to display the information for “bash” related shells, myperl4.pl can be modified
as follow:
$ cat > myperl5.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
while ( $line = <> ) {
if ( $line =~ /bash/ )
{
print $line;
}
}
^D
$ chmod +x myperl5.pl
$ ./myperl5.pl < /etc/shells
/bin/bash
/usr/bin/bash
/bin/rbash
/usr/bin/rbash
$
 The =~ operator is used to search for the pattern “bash” in the string variable $line. If a match is found,
a true value will be returned.
 By default, regular expressions are delimited by slashes (/), like “/bash/”.

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CFS264 ‐ Computer and Operating Systems Fundamentals II Page 3 of 4
Handout 8 - How to Program in Perl
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 Example 3: If you want to modify the code in myperl5.pl to display all the lines that do not contain “bash,”
you need to use the operator “!~” instead. So, we can modify the code in myperl5.pl as follow:
$ cat > myperl6.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
while ( $line = <> ) {
if ( $line !~ /bash/ )
{
print $line;
}
}
^D
$ chmod +x myperl6.pl
$ ./myperl6.pl < /etc/shells
# /etc/shells: valid login shells
/bin/sh
/bin/dash
/usr/bin/tmux
/usr/bin/screen
$
 Example 4: To substitute something with something else in a file, an “s” option can be used. In this example,
we will substitute “Metro State” with “CFS 264” in a testing file called “testfile”
$ cat > testfile
Hello, Metro State!
Good evening, Metro State!
Bye, Metro State!
^D
$
$ cat > myperl7.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
while ( $line = <> ) {
$line =~ s/Metro State/CFS 264/;
print $line;
}
^D
$ chmod +x myperl7.pl
$ ./myperl7.pl < testfile
Hello, CFS 264!
Good evening, CFS 264!
Bye, CFS 264!
$
 Example 5: This example will show you how to get two numbers from the keyboard and then to output the
summation of the two numbers.
$ cat > myperladd2.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
print "Please enter the first number: ";
$first = <>;
print "Please enter the second number: ";
$second = <>;
$total = $first + $second;
chomp($first);
chomp($second);
print "$first + $second = $total\n";
^D
$ chmod +x myperladd2.pl
$ ./myperladd2.pl
Please enter the first number: 4
Please enter the second number: 6
4 + 6 = 10
$

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Please complete the Linux Lab in D2L
CFS264 ‐ Computer and Operating Systems Fundamentals II Page 4 of 4
Handout 8 - How to Program in Perl
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 Comparison operators in Perl

Perl uses different operators to compare numbers from those it uses to compare strings. Table below lists
numeric and string comparison operators.
Numeric String Value returned based on the relationship between the
operators operators values preceding and following the operator
== eq True if equal
!= ne True if not equal
< lt True if less than
> gt True if greater than
<= le True if less than or equal
>= ge True if greater than or equal
<=> cmp 0 if equal, 1 if greater than, –1 if less than

 Example 6-1: This example will show you how to compare numbers
$ cat > if2.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
print "Enter 28: ";
$entry = <>;
if ($entry == 28) { # use == for a numeric comparison
print "Thank you for entering 28.\n";
}
print "End.\n";
^D
$ chmod +x if2.pl
$ ./if2.pl
Enter 28: 28.0
Thank you for entering 28.
End.
$
 Example 6-2: This example will show you how to compare strings
$ cat if2a.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
print "Enter the word 'five': ";
$entry = <>;
chomp ($entry);
if ($entry eq "five") { # use eq for a string comparison
print "Thank you for entering 'five'.\n";
}
else {
print "Error: you either didn't enter 'five' or entered number 5.\n";
}
print "End.\n";
^D
$ chmod +x if2a.pl
$ ./if2a.pl
Enter the word 'five': five
Thank you for entering 'five'.
End.
$ ./if2a.pl
Enter the word 'five': 5
Error: you either didn't enter 'five' or entered number 5.
End.

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Please complete the Linux Lab in D2L