Can I execute a multiline command in Perl's backticks?

Question

In Unix, I have a process that I want to run using nohup. However this process will at some point wait at a prompt where I have to enter yes or no for it to continue. So far, in Unix I have been doing the following

nohup myprocess <<EOF
y
EOF

So I start the process 'myprocess' using nohup and pipe in a file with 'y' then close the file. The lines above are effectively three seperate commands - i.e. I hit enter on the first line in UNIX, then I get a prompt where I enter 'y' and then press enter to then finally type 'EOF' and hit return again.

I want to know execute this in Perl but I am not sure how I can execute this command as it is over three lines. I don't know if the following will work....

my $startprocess = `nohup myprocess <<EOF &
y
EOF
`

Please help - thank you!

Answer 1

I think your proposal will work as is. If not, try replacing the redirect with a pipe:

my $startprocess = `(echo "y" | nohup myprocess) &`;

Also, depending on WHY you are doing a nohup, please look at the following pure Perl daemonizing approach using Proc::Daemon : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/766397/how-can-i-run-a-perl-script-as-a-system-daemon-in-linux

Answer 2

Expect for interactive programs can be used as well.