launch a DOS program from a Perl script?

[mailint1]

Can I launch a DOS program from within a Perl script?

____


This is what I need to do:


I have many files like this:
c:\dir\pippo-red.html
c:\dir\paperino-yellow.html
c:\dir\pluto-red.html
c:\dir\gastone-green.html


I have a HTML2TXT.EXE program that converts files from html to txt
(removing the tags etc...).


The syntax of this program is: "HTML2TXT htmlfilename.htm >
txtfilename.txt"


I want to convert all and only the file which path-name match "c:\dir
\*-red.html". The output files must have the suffix "-text" in the
filename and ".txt" as extension.


In a few words the Perl script in this example must execute the
command two times like this:
HTML2TXT c:\dir\pippo-red.html > c:\dir\pippo-red-text.txt
HTML2TXT c:\dir\pluto-red.html > c:\dir\pluto-red-text.txt


Do you know how can I do this?


Thanks in advance for any help

 

[mailint1]

This seems to be the solution:
system "HTML2TXT $_ > ".(/(.*)html/)[0]."txt" for <c:/dir/*-red.html>;

but how can I launch it from command-line?
I tried PERL 'system "HTML2TXT $_ > ".(/(.*)html/)[0]."txt" for <c:/dir/*-red.html>;' without success...
sorry for my incompetence..

 

[travs69]

you can use back ticks or qx to run command line programs. So if you wanted to do a dos ping you can do `ping 127.0.0.1`;

You need to provide FULL paths anything you run in a cystem call and you have to escape out any @,$'s, and such

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Travis - Those who say it cannot be done are usually interrupted by someone else doing it; Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions;

 

[mailint1]

The solution was:
perl -e "system qq'HTML2TXT $_ > '.(/(.*)html/)[0].'txt' for <c:/dir/*-red.html>