Dear Perlers Please throw some light on the $? variable
I am trying to figure out how the internal structure (format) of $? variable. Please throw some light on this topic. Any help is highly appreciated. [code] system('cat file1.txt'); if($?) {#A Non zero exit code means failure if($? == -1) {# -1 means the program didn't even start print "Failed to run program: $!\n"; } else { print "Actual value of (\$?) is $?\n"; print "The exit value was : ", ($? >> 8), "\n"; print "The signal number that terminated the program was:", ($? & 127), "\n"; print "The program dumped core\n" if $? & 128; } } [/code] In the above code 1) Why we are right shifting the $? variable by 8 (I know we are to get the exit value but what is the internal format or representation of $?) 2) What is the signal number here? 3) What is the core dump? best, Shaji ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------