Can I read and write to multiple filehandles simulateously (Perl)?

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to read from two files, and generate output in a third. I first wanted to edit the first one on the go but I didn't find a suitable method save for arrays.

My problem is that the third file (output) is empty whenever I uncomment the "_ref_param_handling" function. BUT the following is what puzzles me the most: If I do a UNIX very basic \cat\ system call on the output file at then end (see code below), it works just fine. If I open the filehandle just before and close it right after editing, it also works fine (around my print FILEHANDLE LIST).

I undoubtedly am missing something here. Apart from a problem between my keyboard and my chair, what is it? A filehandle conflict? A scope problem?

Every variable is declared and has the value I want it to have.

Edit (not applicable anymore). Using IO::File on the three files didn't change anything.

---

Edit 2 : New full subroutine code

My code works (except when my ref already exists, but that's because of the "append" mode i think) but there might be some mistakes and unperlish ways of coding (sorry, Monks). I, however, use Strict and warnings !

sub _ref_edit($) {
    my $manda_def = "$dir/manda_def.list";
    my $newrefhandle;
    my $ref       = $_[0];
    (my $refout   = $ref) =~ s/empty//;
    my $refhandle;
    my $parname   = '';
    my $parvalue  = '';
    my @val;

    _printMan;

    my $flush = readline STDIN;    # Wait for <enter>

    # If one or both of the ref. and the default values are missing
    if ( !( -e $manda_def && -e $ref ) ) {
        die "Cannot find $ref and/or $manda_def";
    }

    # Open needed files (ref & default)
    open( $refhandle, "<", $ref ) or die "Cannot open ref $ref : $!";
    open( $newrefhandle, ">>", $refout ) 
      or die "Cannot open new ref $refout : $!";

    # Read each line
    while ( my $refline = <$refhandle> ) {
    # If line read not an editable macro
        if ( $refline =~ /^define\({{(.+)}},\s+{{.*__VALUE__.*}}\)/ ){
        $parname = $1;         # $1 = parameter name captured in regexp
        # Prompt user
        $parvalue = _ref_param_handling( $parname, $manda_def );   
        # Substitution in ref
        $refline =~ s/__VALUE__/$parvalue/;
        # Param not specified and no default value
        $parvalue eq '' ? $refline=~s/__COM__/#/ : $refline=~s/__COM__//; 
        }

    print $newrefhandle $refline;
    }
    close $newrefhandle;
    close $refhandle;

    return $refout;
}    # End ref edit

the _ref_param_handle subroutine still is :

open( $mde, '<', $_[1] )
      or die "Cannot open mandatory/default list $_[1] : $!";

    # Read default/mandatory file list 
    while (<$mde>) {       
       ( $name, $manda, $default, $match, $descript ) = split( /\s+/, $_, 5 ); 
       next if ( $name !~ $ref_param );  # If param read differs from parname

    (SOME IF/ELSE)

    } # End while <MDE>
    close $mde;
    return $input;
}

Extract from manda_def file :

NAME  Mandatory? Default Match      Comm.
PORT          y NULL  ^\d+$ Database port
PROJECT       y NULL  \w{1,5}   Project name
SERVER        y NULL  \w+           Server name
modemRouting  n NULL  .+     
modlib        y bin   .+     
modules       y sms   .+

Extract from ref_file :

define({{PORT}},         {{__VALUE__}})dnl
define({{PROJECT}},      {{__VALUE__}})dnl
define({{SERVER}},       {{__VALUE__}})dnl
define({{modemRouting}}, {{__COM__{{$0}} '__VALUE__'}})dnl
define({{modlib}},       {{__COM__{{$0}} '__VALUE__'}})dnl
define({{modules}},      {{__COM__{{$0}} '__VALUE__'}})dnl

Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

It is unclear what is initialising $refhandle, $newrefhandle and $mde. Depending on the values they have will affect the behaviour of open - i.e. whether it will close any filehandles before opening a new one.

I would suggest that you start using the IO::File interface to open/write to files, as this makes the job of filehandle management much easier, and will avoid any inadvertent closes. Something like...

use IO::File;

my $refhandle = IO::File->new("< $ref") or die "open() - $!";

$refhandle->print(...);

As far as editing files in place goes, this is a common pattern I use to achieve this, make sure of the -i behaviour of perl.

sub edit_file
{
    my ($filename) = @_;

    # you can re-create the one-liner above by localizing @ARGV as the list of
    # files the <> will process, and localizing $^I as the name of the backup file.
    local (@ARGV) = ($filename);
    local($^I) = '.bak';

    while (<>)
    {
        s/original string/new string/g;
    }
    continue
    {
        print;
    }
}

Answer 2

Guys, I seriously consider hanging myself with my wireless mouse.

My script never failed. I just didn't ran it through the end (it's actually a very long parameter list). The printing is just done as soon as the filehandle is closed (or so I guessed)...

/me *cries*

I've spent 24 hours on this...

Answer 3

From what I gather, your script wants to convert a file in the following form:

define({{VAR1}}, {{__VALUE__}})
define({{VAR2}}, {{__VALUE__}})
define({{VAR3}}, {{__VALUE__}})
define({{VAR4}}, {{__VALUE__}})

to something like this:

define({{VAR1}}, {{}})
define({{VAR2}}, {{VALUE2}})
define({{VAR3}}, {{VALUE3}})
define({{VAR4}}, {{}})

The following works. I don't know what manda_def means, and also I didn't bother to create an actual variable replacement function.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

sub work {
    my ($ref, $newref, $manda_def) = @_;

    # Open needed files (ref & default)
    open(my $refhandle, '<', $ref) or die "Cannot open ref $ref : $!";
    open(my $newrefhandle, '>', $newref) or die "Cannot open new ref $newref: $!";

    # Read each line
    while (my $refline = <$refhandle>) {
        # if line read is not an editable macro
        if ($refline =~ /^define\({{(.+)}},\s+{{.*__VALUE__.*}}\)/){
            my $parvalue = _ref_param_handling($1, $manda_def); # manda_def?
            # Substitution in ref
            $refline  =~ s/__VALUE__/$parvalue/;
            # Param not specified and no default value
            $refline  =~ s/__COM__/#/ if $parvalue eq '';
        }
        print $newrefhandle $refline;
    }
    close $newrefhandle;
    close $refhandle;

    return $newref;
}

sub _ref_param_handling {
    my %parms = (VAR2 => 'VALUE2', VAR3 => 'VALUE3');
    return $parms{$_[0]} if exists $parms{$_[0]};
}

work('ref.txt', 'newref.txt', 'manda.txt');