Two Questions [perl]

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Well, im kinda a newb to Applescript, but am familiar with many other languages so i have two questions/problems

first one is how to i delete all the contents of a file. i want to write to it later and i want it to be cleared out before that

and then also how to i get it to return a string from a perl script


set GUID to (do shell script "perl #!/usr/local/bin/perl
$length = 36;
$possible = '123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ';
while (length($password) < $length) {
if (length($password) == 8 || length($password) == 13 || length($password) == 18 || length($password) == 23) {
$password .= " - ";
}
$password .= substr($possible, (int(rand(length($possible)))), 1);
}
echo $password;")

but it gives me the error “cant make…into type number” because as you can see it actually returns a 36 letter/digit string

thanks for all the help

#2

Please post your question separately with an appropriate subject. This make the thread easier to follow, and it helps people to find things later when searching.

#3

sorry bout that

i was able to solve my first problem, but now i just need help with the perl, so thanks to anyone who can help

#4

Something this simple should work:

property perlPath : "/Users/administrator/TEST/perlscript.pl"
(* perlscript.pl:
#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Hello.\n";
*)
set rslt to do shell script (quoted form of perlPath)
rslt -- "Hello."

Dealing with parameter passage is just slightly more involved, but is this all you’re looking for?

  • Dan
#5

First, you need to escape the double quotes inside the script; Otherwise AppleScript thinks you’re closing the string.

Second, you need to check out the man for perl to see how to run commands from the command line; You give perl the -e option, followed the code to run (enclosed by quotes to protect it from the shell). (Also, you don’t need a hashbang line when you’re passing the script to the interpreter.)

Finally, echo causes errors on my machine; I think you want print instead.

set GUID to (do shell script "/usr/bin/perl -e'
$length = 36;
$possible = \"123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ\";
while (length($password) < $length) {
	if (length($password) == 8 || length($password) == 13 || length($password) == 18 || length($password) == 23) {
		$password .= \" - \";
	}
	$password .= substr($possible, (int(rand(length($possible)))), 1);
}
print $password;'")
#6

Side note: A native subroutine (which I just posted): randomString()

With that, you could do something like this:

set GUID to randomString(8) & " - " & ¬
	randomString(2) & " - " & ¬
	randomString(2) & " - " & ¬
	randomString(2) & " - " & ¬
	randomString(10)
#7

A bit OT, but if you already know Perl, check out Chris Nandor’s Mac::Glue and Mac::OSA::Simple modules if you’ve not already done so - you may find them of use.

http://search.cpan.org/~cnandor/

HTH