Perl pie with $1 replacements ?

Plankton has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I seem to be confused about how to use "perl -pie" from the command line. I want to use "perl -pie" at the command line to add the string "-x /tmp/ccc" to the tmpwatch command. I am trying this ...

$ /usr/bin/perl -pie 's/^(\/usr\/sbin\/tmpwatch.\*) (\d+ \/tmp)/\$1 -x
+ \/tmp\/ccc \$2/' /tmp/tmpwatch 
Can't open perl script "s/^(\/usr\/sbin\/tmpwatch.\*) (\d+ \/tmp)/\$1 
+-x \/tmp\/ccc \$2/": No such file or directory.
Use -S to search $PATH for it.
[download]

... but this is what happens ...

Can't open perl script "s/^(\/usr\/sbin\/tmpwatch.\*) (\d+ \/tmp)/\$1 
+-x \/tmp\/ccc \$2/": No such file or directory.
Use -S to search $PATH for it.
[download]

What am I doing wrong here?

Comment on Perl pie with $1 replacements ? Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl pie with $1 replacements ? by AR (Friar) on May 04, 2010 at 20:36 UTC
I believe the "e" in "-pie" is being taken as the optional argument to -i. Try `perl -pi -e` instead.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Perl pie with $1 replacements ? by Plankton (Vicar) on May 04, 2010 at 21:48 UTC
thanks! that was it!	[reply]
Re: Perl pie with $1 replacements ? by choroba (Cardinal) on May 04, 2010 at 20:36 UTC
The `-i` switch ~~demands~~expects the extension as its parameter if there is any (`e` in this case) (see perlrun). Updated.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Perl pie with $1 replacements ? by ww (Archbishop) on May 04, 2010 at 22:58 UTC
Nope; the extension is OPTIONAL. http://perldoc.perl.org/perlrun.html: The extension, if supplied (emphasis added), is used to.... And though this is already discussed (below), the examples (in the 5.12 doc) of using `-p, -i and -e` together are constructed this way: `perl -pi -e ...` except where the `-p` is separated by a space from a `-i` (and I didn't find an explicit explanation of that, either).	[reply] [d/l] [select]


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