CIT 597 <STDIN>, <STDOUT> and <STDERR> in Perl
Fall 2008, David Matuszek

In Perl, <STDIN> is the "standard input" file, <STDOUT> is the "standard output" file, and <STDERR> is the "standard error" output file.

The statement $line = <STDIN>; will read one line from standard input and assign it to the variable $line. It will return a false value if there are no remaining lines.

The statement print $line; will print the value of the variable $line on standard output.

The default is that <STDIN> refers to keyboard input, and <STDOUT> and <STDERR> refer to console (screen) output. But these are only defaults, and can be changed.

The Perl program

    # Usage: copyfile.pl < inputFile > outputFile
    while ($line = <STDIN>) {
	     print $line;
    }

will read in all the lines from <STDIN> and copy them to <STDOUT>.

On the command line, < means "use this input file" and > means "use this output file." So (if the above program is on the file copyfile.pl), the command

    perl copyfile.pl < inputFile.txt > outputFile.txt

will copy the file inputFile.txt to the file outputFile.txt.

"Your program should accept input from STDIN and produce its results on STDOUT."

...and what I meant by this was, it should act like any other command-line program, and use the files given on the command line as <STDIN> and <STDOUT>. With just   perl copyfile.pl  and nothing more, it would take its input from the keyboard and produce output on the screen.

The above trivial program works fine on the command line, and does exactly what it is supposed to do.

However...

I have been unable to make this program accept command-line arguments under EasyEclipse. Whatever I try, <STDIN> refers to the keyboard, and <STDOUT> goes to the console. I get the same behavior in both Mac OS X and Windows XP. What am I missing?

I'll offer ten points extra credit to the first person to offer a good solution to this problem, provided I have time to post the solution before the Perl assignment is due.