AREXX question

I'd like to pull something off with AREXX but doesn't seem toi get it tow ork the way i want.

Here's the thing...i know about opening/reading/writing of files in AREXX, but can i catch output from an externally started program wihout the need of those file I/O?

This is what i'd like to achive:

test=ADDRESS COMMAND "version"

The above is just an example.

I don't think this is possible, but please prove me wrong.

I played around with quotation marks, but it doesn't seem to execute the command, unless i leave out the test= part, but then output obviously goes into console.

Is it possible in AEXX (maybe with a workaround or trick) or do i have to go the file I/O way either way?
I want to produce as less overhead as possible as this script should go (if it ever works) into network startup, so it shouldn't do too much I/O to keep the error margin as small as possible.

Thanks

@Raziel

@thomas

Thank you, but that is exactly what i'm trying to avoid.

With your script a textfile is created, opened and then left.

I could delete it afterwards, but i explicitely don't want to create a file.

@Raziel

Realistically, writing and reading a file in RAM: is not going to be noticable in terms of overhead, and it is the most normal solution for this, but I get your point.

An alternative which might seem a bit more clean (if you don't look behind the scenes) is to use C:RxSet and the ARexx GetClip() function.

Best regards,

Niels

@Raziel

I know you would like to do it with ARexx, but is it something you could achieve with a DOS Script too?

@Amigo1

Of course, all hints welcome

@nbache

Have to read up on RxSet then, never used that command

Thanks to both of you

@Raziel
Not exactly sure what you want but in an AmigaDOS script you can do this:

;AmigaDOS script
Set vers `version`
echo $vers

Note that the characters that look like single quotes are actually the character in the key to the left of the 1 key on most keyboards. The key has a ~ char with a ` char below it.

@xenic

The version was just an example.

What i want to achieve is reading in a fraction of a website with cURL and process that further on in the AREXX script, but without the need of saving the string to a file first.

But i guess it's not possible.

@Raziel

You probably won't benefit from RxSet then, nor probably using SetEnv or similar, because I assume you will be dealing with multiline data (such as HTTP headers). RxSet and SetEnv will only save the first line of the input.

If so, my best advice would be to simply redirect the output of curl into a file in RAM: and then read that file from ARexx and close and delete it afterwards. I think one or some of the third-party support libraries (rexxtricks? RMH? rexxarplib?) have a function to read a complete file into a stem variable, one line per stem, which might make this option a bit more neat for you. But I can't ATM see a way around a file.

BTW, you may already know this, but if you want to make sure you can run multiple copies of your script simultaneously, make the result of a PRAGMA('I') part of your temporary filename - this will make it unique.

Best regards,

Niels

@nbache

Thank you.

I never used the PRAGMA var, but will try to next time.

I'm going to write it with file I/O then.
Lets see how good it behaves while in network startup.

A DOS script isn't behaving really well, two out of three times blocking the boot with need to reboot. Pretty obviously my scripting though

@all

Ok, i need help.

Obviously i'm ding something wrong with the IF THEN ELSE stuff as i'm getting an error:

Quote:

I already learned that AREXX doesn't feature an ENDIF switch, but it does feature END (only for DO WHILE loops?).

How do i use that properly, so it doesn't always hit me when i use more than one command in an IF loop.



The above works fine when i leave out the last two lines, as soon as i add ELSE i'm getting the error.

Why?
Unfortunately my manual is falling apart and it doesn't hold very much information regarding loops.

TIA

@Raziel

Your DO needs to be paired with and END before the ELSE.

Since the ELSE branch only contains one statement, it's optional to wrap that in another DO/END pair, but I usually do it myself (just as I also use curly brackets in C/JS etc. even for a one-line branch). It's probably mostly a matter of taste.

But the main thing is: If you have a DO, then you need to end it with an END.

Best regards,

Niels

P.S. BTW, I've used ARexxGuide as a manual for years, it's brillant: http://aminet.net/search.php?query=arexxguide
IIRC, you want the 2.0A stuff.

@Raziel



for longer outputs you may wish to 'run' the command to avoid filling the pipe.

or use python and popen()



or in your specific usage case dump cUrl and send a request direct using tye TCP: device.

or use httplib module in python.

@Raziel

Grab this:

http://aminet.net/package/docs/help/arexxbegin

Iy'll help with all those little syntax niggles.

@all

Thanks a lot to all of youi

@Raziel

The only solution would be not to use curl and get your file directly from Arexx.
You can have an idea of how it works reading the sources of W3S, the Arexx web server.