[wellylug] Perl Help

[Chris Hodgetts]

I added the or die "$!"; and it is now working...

can you explain please?


On Mon, 2004-09-13 at 12:16, Chris Hodgetts wrote:
> This may give more indication
> 
> if ($passed <1)
>         {
> 
>         my
> $smtp=Net::SMTP->new('127.0.0.1',(Hello='thismachine.thatdomain.foo.nz'));
>         $smtp->mail("firstname.lastname\@somedomain.foo.nz");
>         $smtp->to("firstname.lastname\@somedomain.foo.nz");
>         $smtp->data();
>         $smtp->datasend("To: firstname.lastname\@somedomain.foo.nz\n");
>         $smtp->datasend("Date: $thisday, $thisdate $thismonth $thisyear
> $hour:$min\n");
>         $smtp->datasend("Subject: Server5 Error Report $timestamp\n\n");
>         $smtp->datasend("Error Report:\n$errorDescription");
>         $smtp->dataend();
>         $smtp->quit();
> 
> 
> The guy who wrote this script has since left the company, and before he
> left we migrated it over to another box, and it has never worked, and he
> didnt care...
> 
> On Mon, 2004-09-13 at 11:11, Grant McLean wrote:
> > On Mon, 2004-09-13 at 10:44, Chris Hodgetts wrote:
> > > Hello, 
> > > 
> > > I am trying to use perl mail modules, and I think I have installed the
> > > correct ones, but clearly not, because I am getting the following error:
> > > 
> > > Can't call method "mail" on an undefined value at
> > > /home/test/serv5/testS5.pl line 59. 
> > > 
> > > Debian Unstable is the distro I am using, can anyone let me know what
> > > packages "Should" be installed for this to work?
> > 
> > Hmm, that message doesn't give us much to go on and it certainly
> > doesn't imply that the cause is a missing package.
> > 
> > Presumably line 59 of the script has something like this:
> > 
> >   $some_var->mail('some arguments');
> > 
> > The error message is telling us that the variable ($some_var in the
> > example above) is empty when the script expects it to contain an
> > object of some sort.  This in turn implies that an earlier line in
> > the script attempted to create an object, perhaps like this:
> > 
> >   $some_var = Net::SMTP->new('stmp.some.domain');
> > 
> > And that line is failing for some reason.  A better way to write that
> > line would have been:
> > 
> >   $some_var = Net::SMTP->new('stmp.some.domain') or die "$!";
> > 
> > That way you'd get an error indication at the time of the actual
> > failure rather than later on.
> > 
> > My examples assume the Net::SMTP module was being used.  This is part
> > of the core Perl distribution.  In your case, it could well be a 
> > completely different module - typically included near the start of
> > the script with a line like this:
> > 
> >   use Net::SMTP;
> > 
> > Cheers
> > Grant
> > 
> > 
>