Question

Try to debug this script. I think it maybe an issue of variable interpolation? I’m not sure.
It works using options if I pass the values like so:

perl test-file-exists.pl --file /proj/Output/20111126/_GOOD

I am trying to remove the option of passing in --file since I need to generate the date
dynamically.

perl test-file-exists.pl

Given the code changes below (I commented out the options piece). I am trying to create the string (see $chkfil). I am getting errors passing in $dt4. Somehow, its not passing in the file string that I am creating into this other module.

use strict;
use warnings;
use lib '/home/test/lib';
use ProxyCmd;
use Getopt::Long;

#
### Set up for Getopt
#
#my $chkfil;
#my $help; 

#usage() if ( @ARGV < 1 or                       
#          ! GetOptions('help|?' => \$help,
#                       'file=s' => \$chkfil)
#     or defined $help );

my $cmd = ProxyCmd->new( User=>"test_acct",
                    AuthToken=>"YToken",
                  loginServer=>"host.com");

# Get previous day
my $dt4 = qx {date --date='-1day' +'%Y%m%d'};

# Check file
my $chkfil = qq{/proj/Output/$dt4/_GOOD};

# Now test the fileExists function
print "Checking 'fileExists':\n";
my $feResults = $cmd->fileExists("$chkfil");

if ($feResults == 0) {
    print "File Exists!\n";
    } else {
      print "File Does Not Exist\n";
}

sub usage
{
  print "Unknown option: @_\n" if ( @_ );
  print "usage: program [--file /proj/Output/20111126/_GOOD] [--help|-?]\n";
  exit;
}

Answer 1

When you use backticks or qx, you get the trailing newline included so chomp it off:

my $dt4 = qx {date --date='-1day' +'%Y%m%d'};
chomp $dt4;

and you’ll get a sensible filename.

You could also use DateTime and friends to avoid shelling out entirely.