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Am pretty much aware of passing variables between shell scripts using 'EXPORT' command. But am stuck with passing a variable value from a perl script to shell script in UNIX operating systems.

Let me explain it clearly.

I have a parent shell called parent_shell.sh. Inside this shell script am using a variable called 'file_name' which I should fetch from child perl script.

So inside my parent_shell.sh script it will be like as follows,

perl my_perl_script.pl

file_name = 'variable' #from perl above perl script

Hope this is clear. Please let me know if it is not clear.

Thanks

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It's clear. It's not possible with shell script either. –  Jan Hudec Oct 7 '13 at 12:36
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1 Answer 1

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Modifying the global %ENV hash in perl is equivalent to exporting variables in shell.

However, exporting variables in environment, in any language, only affects child processes, period. You can't modify parent process environment in any way.

The child script can only return anything by printing on standard output and standard error and by it's status, but that is a number 0-127 (well, it's a number 0-255, but shell can only reliably process the values up to 127).

If you just need one value from the perl script, simply print the value and use process substitution from the shell:

file_name=$(perl my_perl_script.pl)

if it is more, you can print a shell code to set the variables and use shell's eval, but make sure you quote the values correctly before printing from perl.

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Thanks Jan for your answer. Let me do as you suggested and come to you back. –  Mari Oct 7 '13 at 12:50
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