NAME

Shell::Source - run programs and inherit environment changes

DESCRIPTION

The Shell::Source allows arbitrary shell scripts, or other programs for that matter, to be run and their environment to be inherited into a Perl program.

Begin by creating a Shell::Source object, and specifying the shell it will use.

If the shell is unknown to the module, you will also need to specify how to run the shell in such a way that the output is a series of lines of the form NAME=value. For example, to run a csh script:

     my $csh = Shell::Source->new(shell => "csh",
                                  file  => "stuff.csh",
                                  run   => "csh -f -c 'source [[file]]; env' |");

However, for known shells this is not required. Note that [[file]] will be replaced with the filename of the program you want to run.

Output from running the program is returned from $csh->output.

Changes made to the environment by running the program may be inherited by calling $csh->inherit.

The environment changes are available as a hash from $csh->env, or in Bourne shell syntax from $csh->shell.