Re: OT: Old Windows command line...

In message <20070702231829.TCUS1381.eastrmmtao106.cox.net@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, John K. <john3000@xxxxxxx> writes
It has been quite a while since I've had to do a lot with the Windows command line, and now I find I can't remember certain things, such as...

I need to create a .bat file that contains a command to invoke a php script multiple times, with the "stdin" for each invocation of the php script immediately following the command invoking the script (ah, how easy it was to do such things in MPE). Below is an example of what the .bat file structure would be:

c:\php\php.exe [php_script_name] [?_something_to_tell_DOS_stdin_data_follows]
[line_0_of_data]
[line_1_of_data]
[line_2_of_data]
...
[line_n_of_data]
[eod_mark-though_it_was_ctrl_z]
c:\php\php.exe [php_script_name] [?_something_to_tell_DOS_stdin_data_follows]
[line_0_of_data]
[line_1_of_data]
[line_2_of_data]
...
[line_n_of_data]
[eod_mark-though_it_was_ctrl_z]
c:\php\php.exe [php_script_name] [?_something_to_tell_DOS_stdin_data_follows]
[line_0_of_data]
[line_1_of_data]
[line_2_of_data]
...
[line_n_of_data]
[eod_mark-though_it_was_ctrl_z]

etc. - you get the point.
I tried using "<" for the "[?_something_to_tell_DOS_stdin_data_follows]" but that didn't work. I can get it to work if the data is in an external file, but that won't work for this application. I thought CTRL-Z was the "end of data" but that just seems to cause the command window to hang.

I guess I'm Googling the wrong keywords as I'm not finding what I'm looking for.

Any suggestions or assistance are greatly appreciated!

John (running late to pick up my children for a movie!)

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Hi John

I don't know if you got any replies privately.

But if not, I can at least share my ignorance with you, given that I know nothing of php; and also possibly not enough of how MPE works in this area :-)

If I don't miss my guess on MPE, then if php.exe was an MPE program running in a jobstream, it wouldn't be MPE passing the subsequent lines to php exactly.

Rather, they would only be passed to php if it specifically requested them, line by line; though then, as the default feed for the request would be from STDIN, and the datastream itself would be STDIN, MPE would then pass the lines in one by one.

I hope this does not sound like splitting hairs... but it has two implications.

The first is that only as many lines would be passed in as php.exe (via its script) requested. So if php.exe requested less lines than there were of data, and then quit, MPE would try to execute any remaining lines of data as commands.

And conversely, if php.exe requested more lines, then the later php command lines themselves would be passed in.

So, to make the above work on MPE. with a possibly variable number of lines to be fed into each php invocation, you'd have to have a loop in your php code, and some sort of closing token ( for which CTRL-Z might be fine) that told the php code to stop executing and to quit.

I don't think it's going to be much different from this under DOS for you. And I don't think you can pipe multiple lines into a DOS command in quite the way you seem to want to above.

I see two choices: firstly, can you build the file you need on the fly? You say an external file won't work, but not exactly why).

Taking one invocation of PHP, above:

c:\php\php.exe [php_script_name] [?_something_to_tell_DOS_stdin_data_follows]
[line_0_of_data]
[line_1_of_data]
[line_2_of_data]
....
[line_n_of_data]
[eod_mark-though_it_was_ctrl_z]

can you invert and extend this, thus:

[line_0_of_data] > tempfile
[line_1_of_data] >> tempfile
[line_2_of_data] >> tempfile
.... >> tempfile
[line_n_of_data] >> tempfile

c:\php\php.exe [php_script_name] < tempfile

and you may or may not need:

[eod_mark (some convention, perhaps ctrl_z] >> tempfile

depending on whether you need something to tell the invocation of php to quit or not - if it's a variable number of line, you probably will, though).

This can all still be done on the fly, but requires the php invocation to follow, not precede, the data, and for the >(>) tempfile to be appended to each data line.


The second possible option, which would allow you to keep the format in which, is to explicitly tell php to read the STDIN; it can do this, but needs to be told to, apparently:

http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.php

where it describes:

If you want to read a single line from stdin, you can use
<?php
$line = trim(fgets(STDIN)); // reads one line from STDIN
fscanf(STDIN, "%d\n", $number); // reads number from STDIN
?>

I hope this helps. As I said above, I would not be my own first choice of php expertise :-)
--
Roy Brown 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be
Kelmscott Ltd useful, or believe to be beautiful' William Morris

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