What's the difference between Perl's backticks, system, and exec?

Question

Can someone please help me? In Perl, what is the difference between:

exec \"command\";

and

system(\"command\");
         


        

Answer 1

What's the difference between Perl's backticks (`), system, and exec?

exec -> exec "command"; ,
system -> system("command"); and 
backticks -> print `command`;

exec

exec executes a command and never resumes the Perl script. It's to a script like a return statement is to a function.

If the command is not found, exec returns false. It never returns true, because if the command is found, it never returns at all. There is also no point in returning STDOUT, STDERR or exit status of the command. You can find documentation about it in perlfunc, because it is a function.

E.g.:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Need to start exec command";
my $data2 = exec('ls');
print "Now END exec command";
print "Hello $data2\n\n";

In above code, there are three print statements, but due to exec leaving the script, only the first print statement is executed. Also, the exec command output is not being assigned to any variable.

Here, only you're only getting the output of the first print statement and of executing the ls command on standard out.

system

system executes a command and your Perl script is resumed after the command has finished. The return value is the exit status of the command. You can find documentation about it in perlfunc.

E.g.:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Need to start system command";
my $data2 = system('ls');
print "Now END system command";
print "Hello $data2\n\n";

In above code, there are three print statements. As the script is resumed after the system command, all three print statements are executed.

Also, the result of running system is assigned to data2, but the assigned value is 0 (the exit code from ls).

Here, you're getting the output of the first print statement, then that of the ls command, followed by the outputs of the final two print statements on standard out.

backticks (`)

Like system, enclosing a command in backticks executes that command and your Perl script is resumed after the command has finished. In contrast to system, the return value is STDOUT of the command. qx// is equivalent to backticks. You can find documentation about it in perlop, because unlike system and exec, it is an operator.

E.g.:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Need to start backticks command";
my $data2 = `ls`;
print "Now END system command";
print "Hello $data2\n\n";

In above code, there are three print statements and all three are being executed. The output of ls is not going to standard out directly, but assigned to the variable data2 and then printed by the final print statement.