How to call a python script from Perl?

Question

I need to call "/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py" with few arguments from my Perl script. How should i do this ?

Answer 1

my $output = `/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2`;

Answer 2

If you need to capture STDOUT:

my $ret = `/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2`;

You can easily capture STDERR redirecting it to STDOUT:

my $ret = `/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2 2>&1`;

If you need to capture the exit status, then you can use:

my $ret = system("/usr/bin/pdf2txt.py arg1 arg2");

Take in mind that both `` and system() block until the program finishes execution.

If you don't want to wait, or you need to capture both STDOUT/STDERR and exit status, then you should use IPC::Open3.