How to run an executable file using Perl on Windows XP?

Question

How to run an executable file using perl?

For instance, i want to run a plain notepad.exe. How could I achieve this?

This is what I've got:

my @args = system("notepad.exe");
system(@args) == 0  or die "system @args failed: $?";

But it returns:

Can't spawn "cmd.exe": No such file or directory blah blah blah.

What am I missing?

Solution 1

Try this.

my $prog = "C:\\strawberry\\perltest\\Extractor.bat";

if (-f $prog)   # does it exist?
{
    print "Will run notepad";
system($prog);
}
else  
{
    print "$prog doesn't exist.";
}

Solution 2

Your code seems a bit confused. What you probably want is something like

my $cmd = "notepad.exe";
my @args = ($cmd, "readme.txt");

system(@args);

if($? == -1) {
    die "system @args failed: $?";
}

system returns a single value, not an array. See perldoc -f system for a detailed description.

This thread on perlmonks discusses the error you're getting with a few different solutions being presented.

This answer is an extension of my original comment. Sorry if it's superfluous.

Comments

[quinekxi]

Thanks you. That's should explains. :)