Perl Windows command fails

Question

I'm trying to run a simple query on network computers to get their Windows' version. This command runs, and returns expected results, when used from the command line:

psexec \\comp_name reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" /v ReleaseId

but when run from Perl using:

system("psexec \\\\$comp_name reg query 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' /v ReleaseId")

I get the error from REG ERROR: Invalid key name. Considering that both commands are the same, I cannot figure out why I am getting an error when running it from Perl. My only assumption is the way it's resolving the quotes. Note that this problem persists regardless of whether I use system, exec, or ``. Any suggestions?

Always use `use strict; use warnings qw( all );`!!! It would have identified your error. — ikegami, Nov 05 '17 at 17:39

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 19 '19 at 13:42

3

You need to double up all of the backslashes:

system("psexec \\\\$comp_name reg query 'HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion' /v ReleaseId")

edited Feb 19 '19 at 13:42

Gerhard

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answered Nov 05 '17 at 17:31

Thank you, this was indeed the problem. This, and apparently it had to be `\"HKLM...\"` – Geoffrey H. Nov 05 '17 at 17:40

Perl Windows command fails

1 Answers1