How to call a python script from Perl?

Question

I need to call \"/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py\" with few arguments from my Perl script. How should i do this ?

Answer 1

If you need to capture STDOUT:

my $ret = `/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2`;

You can easily capture STDERR redirecting it to STDOUT:

my $ret = `/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2 2>&1`;

If you need to capture the exit status, then you can use:

my $ret = system("/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2");

Take in mind that both `` and system() block until the program finishes execution.

If you don't want to wait, or you need to capture both STDOUT/STDERR and exit status, then you should use IPC::Open3.

Answer 2

If you don't need the script output, but you want the return code, use system():

...
my $bin = "/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py";
my @args = qw(arg1 arg2 arg3);
my $cmd = "$bin ".join(" ", @args);

system ($cmd) == 0 or die "command was unable to run to completion:\n$cmd\n";

Answer 3

Francisco's cool response:

my $ret = `/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2 2>&1`;

is simplified by Blagovest Buyukliev:

my $ret = `/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2`;

The alternative is,

my $ret = system(/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2`);

I don't think will work because the output is printed onto the screen and will not be captured by $ret

Answer 4

my $output = `/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2`;