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From: Ed L Cashin <ecashin@coe.uga.edu>
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Subject: Re: pdftops
Date: 21 Sep 2000 10:38:36 -0400
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Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> writes:

> Hi, 
> 
> the perl line: 
> 
>   system("pdftops") ; 
>
> does not work any longer with the latest perl and pdftops. It does
> work when the program is on the same path, but not otherwise. This
> is strange, since pdfetex in the same binpath as pdftops does
> work. Did they change perl?

Yes, the latest version of perl is very different.  Version 5.6 has
some big differences, including new features that are incompatible
with the old perl 5 (e.g., now "use vars" is obsolete because of the
introduction of "our" variables). 

But I can't think of why the new perl would make that simple system
call break.  Looking at the entry for "system" in the perlfunc
manpage, I see ...

       Beginning with v5.6.0, Perl will attempt to flush all
       files opened for output before any operation that may
       do a fork, but this may not be supported on some
       platforms (see the perlport manpage).  To be safe, you
       may need to set `$|' ($AUTOFLUSH in English) or call
       the `autoflush()' method of `IO::Handle' on any open
       handles.

But I don't know if that's relevant.  Maybe try some error checking:

     { 
        #-----------this command makes a log file on UNIX-type OS
        my $cmd  = "pdftops foo bar 1> /tmp/test.log 2>&1";
        my $err  = system($cmd);
        if ($err == -1) {
           die "Error: could not start pdftops: $!";
        } elsif ($err) {
           $err  /= 256;        # find real exit status
           die "Error: pdftops returned error status: $err";
        }
        print "Oh, happy day!\n";
     }  

-- 
--Ed Cashin                     PGP public key:
  ecashin@coe.uga.edu           http://www.coe.uga.edu/~ecashin/pgp/