NAME

Shell::GetEnv - extract the environment from a shell after executing commands

SYNOPSIS

  use Shell::GetEnv;

  $env = Shell::GetEnv->new( $shell, $command );
  $status = $env->status;
  $envs = $env->envs( %opts )
  $env->import_envs( %opts );

DESCRIPTION

Shell::GetEnv provides a facility for obtaining changes made to environmental variables as the result of running shell scripts. It does this by causing a shell to invoke a series of user provided shell commands (some of which might source scripts) and having the shell process store its environment (using a short Perl script) into a temporary file, which is parsed by Shell::Getenv.

Communications with the shell subprocess may be done via standard IPC (via a pipe), or may be done via the Perl Expect module (necessary if proper execution of the shell script requires the shell to be attached to a "real" terminal).

The new environment may be imported into the current one, or may be returned either as a hash or as a string suitable for use with the *NIX env command.

METHODS

new

  $env = Shell::GetEnv->new( $shell, @cmds, \%attrs );

Start the shell specified by $shell, run the passed commands, and retrieve the environment. Note that only shell built-in commands can actually change the shell's environment, so typically the commands source a startup file. For example:

  $env = Shell::GetEnv->new( 'tcsh', 'source foo.csh' );

The supported shells are:

  csh tcsh bash sh ksh zsh dash

Attributes:

"startup" boolean

If true, the user's shell startup files are invoked. This flag is supported for "csh", "tcsh", and "bash". This is emulated under ksh using its -p flag, which isn't quite the same thing.

There seems to be no clean means of turning off startup file processing under the other shells.

This defaults to true.

"echo" boolean

If true, put shell is put in echo mode. This is only of use when the "stdout" attribute is used. It defaults to false.

"interactive" boolean

If true, put the shell in interactive mode. Some shells do not react well when put in interactive mode but not connected to terminals. Try using the "expect" option instead. This defaults to false.

"login" boolean

If true, invoke the shell as a login shell. Defaults to false.

tcsh and csh will only honor this option if no other command line options are passed. For these shells Shell::GetEnv will throw an exception if this option conflicts with another.

"redirect" boolean

If true, redirect the output and error streams (see also the "STDERR" and "stdout" options). Defaults to true.

"verbose" boolean

If true, put the shell in verbose mode. This is only of use when the "stdout" attribute is used. It defaults to false.

"stderr" filename

Normally output from the shells' standard error stream is discarded. This may be set to a file name to which the stream should be written. See also the "redirect" option.

"stdout" filename

Normally output from the shells' standard output stream is discarded. This may be set to a file name to which the stream should be written. See also the "Redirect" option.

"expect" boolean

If true, the Perl Expect module is used to communicate with the subshell. This is useful if it is necessary to simulate connection with a terminal, which may be important when setting up some enviroments.

"timeout" integer

The number of seconds to wait for a response from the shell when using Expect. It defaults to 10 seconds.

"shellopts" scalar or arrayref

Arbitrary options to be passed to the shell.

envs

  $env = $env->envs( [%opt] );

Return the environment. Typically the environment is returned as a hashref, but if the "envstr" option is true it will be returned as a string suitable for use with the *NIX env command. If no options are specified, the entire environment is returned.

The following options are recognized:

"diffsonly" boolean: If true, the returned environment contains only those variables which are new or which have changed from the current environment. There is no way of indicating Variables which have been deleted.
"exclude" array or scalar: This specifies variables to exclude from the returned environment. It may be either a single value or an array of values.
A value may be a string (for an exact match of a variable name), a regular expression created with the qr operator, or a subroutine reference. The subroutine will be passed two arguments, the variable name and its value, and should return true if the variable should be excluded, false otherwise.
"envstr" boolean: If true, a string representation of the environment is returned, suitable for use with the *NIX env command. Appropriate quoting is done so that it is correclty parsed by shells.
If the "zapdeleted" option is also specified (and is true) variables which are present in the current environment but not in the new one are explicitly deleted by inserting "-u variablename" in the output string. Note, however, that not all versions of env recognize the -u option (e.g. those in Solaris or OS X). In those cases, to ensure the correct environment, use "diffsonly =" 0, zapdeleted => 0> and invoke env with the "-i" option.

status

  $status = $env->status;

Returns the invoked shell's status after executing the commands provided to the constructor. See "system" in perlfunc for instructions on how to interpret the status.

import_envs

  $env->import_envs( %opt )

Import the new environment into the current one. The available options are:

"exclude" array or scalar: This specifies variables to exclude from the returned environment. It may be either a single value or an array of values.
A value may be a string (for an exact match of a variable name), a regular expression created with the qr operator, or a subroutine reference. The subroutine will be passed two arguments, the variable name and its value, and should return true if the variable should be excluded, false otherwise.
"zapdeleted" boolean: If true, variables which are present in the current environment but not in the new one are deleted from the current environment.

EXPORT

None by default.

DEPENDENCIES

The YAML::Tiny module is preferred for saving the environment (because of its smaller footprint); the Data::Dumper module will be used if it is not available.

The Expect module is required only if the "expect" option is specified.

AUTHOR

Diab Jerius, <djerius@cpan.org>

CONTRIBUTORS

Marty O'Brien <mob@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is released under the GNU General Public License. You may find a copy at

          http://www.gnu.org/licenses