On Tuesday 08 Feb 2011 09:25:22 Yossi Itzkovich wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In one of my scripts I have to launch an external utility, and since it
> might not be in the user path, I would like to add the target directory
> (or directories) to the PATH environment. To be on the safe side, I want
> to restore the original path after execution of the utility. I thought of
> using:
>
> {
> local $ENV{PATH}.=":/new/path/to/use";
> `externalUtility`;
> }
>
> The problem is that I want to do ".=", but at this point (because of
> "local"), the original value is empty. Is there a trick here to use, or
> should I do it by saving the old path, setting the new one, restore the
> old value ?
What I normally do is something like:
local $ENV{PATH} = $ENV{PATH} . ....
You can also do:
{
local $ENV{PATH} = $ENV{PATH};
$ENV{PATH} .= ...;
}
Both are a bit ugly, but I think you'll survive.
There are some abstractions for handling PATH and related variables on CPAN
such as http://search.cpan.org/dist/Env-Path/ . I had a good experience with
it when I used it in the run-tests.pl script of Freecell Solver, but some
people on IRC told me it sucked, so your kilometrage may vary.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
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