PERL vs. Shell scripting for server automation.

[Eric Shubert]

Good comments so far.

Perl is a bit more powerful, meaning that you can do just about anything 
with it. It's also widely used for many things, and is C-ish in its 
syntax. So knowing perl is likely to give you more mileage personally.

OTOH, bash is a bit simpler. When I've looked at doing the same thing in 
bash vs perl, the bash scripts tend to be a bit shorter and simpler (no 
files to open, etc). There is quite a lot you can do with bash once you 
learn what it's capable of.

Given that your application is something that is done for the most part 
at the command line, I expect in this case that bash would be more 
suitable. I don't think that perl would buy you much of anything, and 
bash would probably be a little less coding.

That's just my opinion though. ;)

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'

keith smith wrote:
> 
> Well Shell looks like Chinese to me.  I bet I can learn it as I have 
> learned a number of languages.  I think knowing what to do [with Linux] 
> might be more difficult than learning a language.  I did some PERL 
> scripting about 10 years ago.  Seems simple enough.
> 
> Since it is half a dozen of one or 6 of the other, I'm wondering which 
> would give me more mileage since I am currently doing PHP?
> 
> ------------------------
> Keith Smith
> 
> --- On *Wed, 5/19/10, James Finstrom /<jfinstrom at rhinoequipment.com>/* 
> wrote:
> 
> 
>     From: James Finstrom <jfinstrom at rhinoequipment.com>
>     Subject: Re: PERL vs. Shell scripting for server automation.
>     To: "Main PLUG discussion list" <plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
>     Date: Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 6:11 PM
> 
>     This is like asking bacon or gravy. It depends what flavor of fat you
>     are :). Do you know either language? Which are you more fluent in
> 
>     On 5/19/10, keith smith <klsmith2020 at yahoo.com
>     </mc/compose?to=klsmith2020 at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>      >
>      > Hi Everyone,
>      >
>      > I was looking at some examples on writing a back up script and
>     they are
>      > written in shell script.
>      >
>      > Now I'm wondering what would be better PERL or Shell scripting
>     for doing
>      > stuff like writing a backup script that might stop MySql, make a copy
>      > (dump?) , tar it and maybe move the tarball or place it on
>     another server?
>      >
>      > As you might have gathered from my last couple of questions I am
>     not a sys
>      > admin.  I'm a programmer and am responsible for several servers,
>     so I guess
>      > I need to break down and learn a few more skills.
>      >
>      > Thanks in advance for your insight, advice, and help!
>      >
>      > ------------------------
>      >
>      > Keith Smith
>      >
>      >
>      >
> 
>     -- 
>     Sent from my mobile device
> 
>     James Finstrom
>     Rhino Equipment Corp.
>     http://rhinoequipment.com ~ http://postug.com
>     Phone: 1-877-RHINO-T1 ~ FAX: +1 (480) 961-1826
>     Twitter: http://twitter.com/rhinoequipment
>     IP: guest at asterisk.rhinoequipment.com
>     </mc/compose?to=guest at asterisk.rhinoequipment.com>
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