[ale] Perl Question

[Chris Hamilton]

> #!/usr/bin/perl
> #The following system command generates a Julian date
> system('date +%j') ;
> print "The Julian date is $d " ;
> 
> The question is how to capture the output of the system command to the
> variable $d.
> 
> As always, thanks in advance for any assistance.

Personally, I try to avoid using system calls. I would do:

use POSIX;

$d = strftime("%j\n", localtime(time));

print $d;

Perl's POSIX::strftime conforms to strftime(3).

-- 
Chris Hamilton          REALM Information Technologies	
chrish at realminfo.com    Manager, Information Technology Services