Paths After Shebang

[sharner]

On the HPUX, is it required that I provide a full path in my script after the shebang? I am running a perl script that starts out with #!perl, and am getting the following error: "-bash: ./DirTree.pl: perl: bad interpreter: No such file or directory". However, when I provide the full path to perl, everything works fine. BTW, perl is in my path and does work from the command line without typing the full path.

[avizen9]

Hello sharner,
check the perl actual path with below command.

which perl

and then set path with below command
export PATH=/usr/bin/perl:$PATH

here my perl is installed in /usr/bin/perl

thanks,

[Dennis Handly · Accepted solution]

>is it required that I provide a full path in my script after the shebang?

Yes, exec(2) is picky that way.
You could use this trick:
#!/usr/bin/env perl

No options are allowed on that line.

[James R. Ferguson]

HI:

Most commonly, you declare '#!/usr/bin/perl' in your scripts and simply symlink the Perl binary accordingly. This allows your scripts to make a static declaration while your binaries are installed in various subdirectories of '/opt' or '/usr' as your needs dictate. As Dennis noted, the approach taken is to use '#!/usr/bin/env perl'.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Dennis Handly]

>ME: Yes, exec(2) is picky that way.

This is mentioned in exec(2):
When the script file is executed, the system executes the specified interpreter as an executable object file. ... no path searching is done of the interpreter name.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) Sharner:

You can limit your script's options a bit by using the "#!/usr/bin/env" shebang tecnhique.

For example attempting to add runtime options when the interpreter is explicitly specified will work:

#!/usr/bin/perl -l

...BUT _FAIL_ when written as:

#!/usr/bin/env perl -l

...since "perl -l" is passwd as one argument leading to the error:

No such file or directory: perl -l

Regards!

...JRF...

[Dennis Handly]

>JRF: BUT _FAIL_ when written as:

That's what I was trying to say. It is all explained in exec(2):
http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-60130/exec.2.html