From trajano@cyberdude.com

  # determine if the system can fork() properly
  eval 'fork || exit';
  my $can_fork = ($@​ eq '');

  my @​cmd = (ANYINFOEXEC, '-i', $in_format, $src);

  if ($can_fork) {
  open(S, '-|') || exec @​cmd || die $!;
  }
  else {
  local($ENV{PATH}) = ('');
  open(S, join(' ', @​cmd, '|')) || die $!;
  }

-----Original Message-----
From​: tkil@​jelerak.scrye.com [mailto​:tkil@​jelerak.scrye.com]On Behalf Of
Tkil
Sent​: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 1​:46 PM
To​: Archimedes Trajano
Cc​: perlbug@​perl.com
Subject​: Re​: Safe pipe open does not work properly under NT

Tom C is correct that you're not forking; the open is probably
returning "undef" (meaning "fork failed"), not "0" ("fork succeeded,
you're the child). this is covered in the perl for win32 FAQs. use a
more selective construct to determine the truth​:

my $pid = open T, "|-";
die "couldn't open child​: $!" unless defined $pid;

if ($pid == 0)
{
# child
exec "type";
}
else
{
# parent
$rc = wait;
}

or whatever.

also, note that Windows NT does not (so far as i know) have a command
called "cat". they use "type" to do trivial (one-file) operations, or
"copy" to actually concatenate files.

the error message sounds like it might have successfully forked, but
cannot find the "cat" command. either change it to "type" or make a
"cat.bat" file somewhere on your path.

t.
--
Tkil * <URL​: http​://www.scrye.com/~tkil> * hopelessly hopeless romantic.
"So amplify this little one | She hears as much as she can see
She's a volume freak | And what she sees, she
can't believe."
-- Catherine Wheel, _Happy Days_, "Judy Staring At The Sun"

From @steve-m-hay

Perl on Win32 does have a fork() emulation if it was built with threads
enabled (which the popular ActivePerl, for example, is), but even with
this fork() emulation, "piping opens" are still not supported -- see
perlport manpage.

Hence $can_fork is most likely a true value, but the open(S, '-|') will
still fail anyway. This is documented behaviour, not a bug.

@steve-m-hay - Status changed from 'open' to 'resolved'