Printing to multiple file handles with one request

gnu@perl has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a situation where a program sends notifications in a number of methods (STDOUT, mailx, to a log file). Any one of a any combination of methods could be selected for the output under various circumstances.

What I was wondering is if I could use one print statement and specify multiple file handles to direct the print to?

I do realize that I could put the file handles into and array and loop over it, but I want to know if there is truly a way to do it with one execution of one command. Thanks.

Comment on Printing to multiple file handles with one request

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Printing to multiple file handles with one request by tadman (Prior) on Nov 19, 2002 at 15:36 UTC
You should create a sub-routine that handles these for you. For example: `sub mprint { my @fh; push(@fh, shift) while (ref($_[0]) eq 'GLOB'); print $_ @_ foreach (@fh); } open($so, ">&STDOUT"); open($se, ">&STDERR"); mprint $se, $so, "This tests\n";` [download] It's not quite as clean as the builtin, but it's pretty close. You could even group your filehandles together into array packages, so that it's tidier: `my @default = ($so); my @log_and_print = ($log, $so); mprint @default, "Standard message\n"; mprint @log_and_print, "This goes to log and screen\n";` [download] Update: IO::Tee looks like a great way to do this as well, provided you can install your own modules.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: Printing to multiple file handles with one request by gnu@perl (Pilgrim) on Nov 19, 2002 at 15:42 UTC
Yeah, this is pretty much what I had done, I was hoping there was a way 'built in' to standard perl. Installing modules is a little difficult due to the position of management. Sometimes I don't state what I have already done because it seems to taint the responses from time to time. I like to see fresh ideas and very often some really cool stuff come up. Thanks for your help!	[reply]
Re: Printing to multiple file handles with one request by RMGir (Prior) on Nov 19, 2002 at 15:35 UTC
That looks like a job for IO::Tee. -- Mike	[reply]
Re: Printing to multiple file handles with one request by John M. Dlugosz (Monsignor) on Nov 19, 2002 at 15:53 UTC
I usually use a sub, like tadman explains. But, if you have code that writes to a single file already, you can retrofit by using a tie'd file handle. Just implement the WRITE, PRINT, and PRINTF hooks to send to your multiple sources.	[reply]
Re: Printing to multiple file handles with one request by jdporter (Paladin) on Nov 19, 2002 at 19:17 UTC
You might be interested in looking at the solution I posted in the Snippets Section. It's short enough that you could easily copy-and-paste it into your program, and no one would be any the wiser. See also the Categorized Question Is it possible to write to 2 files, eg. print LOGFILE,TEMP 'hello'?. jdporter ...porque es dificil estar guapo y blanco.	[reply]


XP is just a number
	PerlMonks