# PERL script problem

**URL:** <https://community.unix.com/t/perl-script-problem/172773>\
**Category:** Shell Programming and Scripting\
**Created:** [July 6, 2007, 4:04am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/perl-script-problem/172773 "2007-07-06T04:04:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caddyjoe77](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/caddyjoe77/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@caddyjoe77](https://community.unix.com/u/caddyjoe77)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 4:04am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/perl-script-problem/172773/1 "2007-07-06T04:04:13Z")

</div>

Hi all, i wrote this script and the code appears to work except i cannot connect to the WMI interface on Windows XP boxes. The listing is printed for testing purposes so i know that part works. When it tries to connect to WMI, the script dies. Should echo these properties to me. I think the problem is in the array, but not sure how to fix it. Can you all help?

```nohighlight
use Win32::OLE('in');
use constant wbemFlagReturnImmediately => 0x10;
use constant wbemFlagForwardOnly => 0x20;
#use Win32::AdminMisc;

#Read from your selected file, make sure the path is right; you must use \\ or UNC \\\\
$computer="c:\\list\\hosts.txt \n";
open(DATA,$computer) or die "Could not open File!, check the path! \n";
@raw_list=<DATA>;
print @raw_list;
close(DATA)

foreach($computer, @raw_list); 
$objWMIService = Win32::OLE->GetObject
    ("winmgmts:\\\\$computer\\root\\CIMV2") or die "WMI connection failed.\n";
$colItems = $objWMIService->ExecQuery
    ("SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem","WQL",wbemFlagReturnImmediately | wbemFlagForwardOnly);

foreach my $objItem (in $colItems)
{
      print "Caption: $objItem->{Caption}\n";
      print "CSD Version: $objItem->{CSDVersion}\n";
      print "CS Name: $objItem->{CSName}\n";
      print "Name: $objItem->{Name}\n";
      print "Service Pack Major Version: $objItem->{ServicePackMajorVersion}\n";
      print "System Directory: $objItem->{SystemDirectory}\n";
      print "Windows Directory: $objItem->{WindowsDirectory}\n";
      print "\n";
}

```

thanks for whatever help you can provide.

dont beat me to profusely with a stick; its not under my control that they are all Windows boxes 😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aigles](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/aigles/32/118_2.png) [@aigles](https://community.unix.com/u/aigles)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/perl-script-problem/172773/2 "2007-07-06T04:18:29Z")

</div>

```nohighlight
foreach($computer, @raw_list)
{
   $objWMIService = Win32::OLE->GetObject
       ("winmgmts:\\\\$computer\\root\\CIMV2") or die "WMI connection failed.\n";
   $colItems = $objWMIService->ExecQuery
       ("SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem","WQL",wbemFlagReturnImmediately | wbemFlagForwardOnly);

   foreach my $objItem (in $colItems)
   {
         print "Caption: $objItem->{Caption}\n";
         print "CSD Version: $objItem->{CSDVersion}\n";
         print "CS Name: $objItem->{CSName}\n";
         print "Name: $objItem->{Name}\n";
         print "Service Pack Major Version: $objItem->{ServicePackMajorVersion}\n";
         print "System Directory: $objItem->{SystemDirectory}\n";
         print "Windows Directory: $objItem->{WindowsDirectory}\n";
         print "\n";
   }
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cbkihong](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/cbkihong/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@cbkihong](https://community.unix.com/u/cbkihong)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 5:49am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/perl-script-problem/172773/3 "2007-07-06T05:49:58Z")

</div>

> [@aigles](#):
>
> [CODE]  
> foreach my $objItem (in $colItems)

Perl doesn't have the foreach() loop syntax like that, I think. It looks more like Javascript or PHP than Perl. I guess you should try to quote any error messages if any, and indicate which line the error exists. The segment you posted does not appear to be a correct Perl program.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caddyjoe77](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/caddyjoe77/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@caddyjoe77](https://community.unix.com/u/caddyjoe77)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 5:59am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/perl-script-problem/172773/4 "2007-07-06T05:59:05Z")

</div>

> [@aigles](#):
>
> ```plaintext
> foreach($computer, @raw_list)
> {
> $objWMIService = Win32::OLE->GetObject
> ("winmgmts:\\\\$computer\\root\\CIMV2") or die "WMI connection failed.\n";
> $colItems = $objWMIService->ExecQuery
> ("SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem","WQL",wbemFlagReturnImmediately | wbemFlagForwardOnly);
> 
> foreach my $objItem (in $colItems)
> {
> print "Caption: $objItem->{Caption}\n";
> print "CSD Version: $objItem->{CSDVersion}\n";
> print "CS Name: $objItem->{CSName}\n";
> print "Name: $objItem->{Name}\n";
> print "Service Pack Major Version: $objItem->{ServicePackMajorVersion}\n";
> print "System Directory: $objItem->{SystemDirectory}\n";
> print "Windows Directory: $objItem->{WindowsDirectory}\n";
> print "\n";
> }
> }
> 
> ```

I tried that and get a 255 error.

if i change it to foreach(@raw\_list) or foreach($computer) i get an error 9

here is the error, substitute 255 for the 9

WMI connection failed.  
host1  
host2  
host3  
Exit code: 9 , 0009h

I'm sure it is with the array, but damn if i can figure it out! 🙂 Where do i find the system error codes such as 9 or 255?

EDIT: ok, i ran the script with perl -w and this is what i received

Odd number of elements in hash assignment at retina.pl line 21, \<DATA\> line 3.  
Win32::OLE(0.1707) error 0x80041021  
after character 0 in "winmgmts:\\c:\list\hosts.txt  
\root\CIMV2" at retina.pl line 30  
eval {...} called at retina.pl line 30  
WMI connection failed.

so basically, what i gather from this is that it may not even be connecting to the WMI service to begin with? And for some reason it is reading what is supposed to be a hostname as the literal filename and path. Am i on the right track here?

thank you

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![drl](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/drl/32/542_2.png) [@drl](https://community.unix.com/u/drl)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 10:28am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/perl-script-problem/172773/5 "2007-07-06T10:28:43Z")

</div>

Hi, cbkihong.

An aside.

> [@cbkihong](#):
>
> Perl doesn't have the foreach() loop syntax like that, I think. It looks more like Javascript or PHP than Perl. I guess you should try to quote any error messages if any, and indicate which line the error exists. The segment you posted does not appear to be a correct Perl program.

I thought so at first also, so I wrote a short script to see what happened:

```plaintext
#!/usr/bin/perl

# @(#) perl-basic Template for common usage.

# use warnings;
# use strict;

my($debug);
$debug = 0;
$debug = 1;

my(@a) = qw/ a b c d e /;
my($a) = @a;

foreach my $i ( in $a ) {
        print " i is :$i:\n";
}

exit(0);

```

which produced:

```plaintext
% ./p1
Can't locate object method "in" via package "a" (perhaps you forgot to load "a"?) at ./p1 line 15.

```

That seems to be something to do with the OO features of perl, with which I am not sufficiently familiar to be able to provide an explanation. I perused Schwartz' Intermediate perl, but found nothing on-point so far.

I think we both looked at this and saw a corruption of the foreach with syntax from some other language. However, almost anything seems to be legal in perl. So, at least from my perspective, I was led to the wrong conclusion by assuming a syntax infraction.

Even if one enables strict and warnings, the same message is produced ... cheers, drl

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caddyjoe77](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/caddyjoe77/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@caddyjoe77](https://community.unix.com/u/caddyjoe77)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/perl-script-problem/172773/6 "2007-07-06T14:29:58Z")

</div>

thanks for the help on this; i actually used that particular foreach example from a PERL book i had gotten. Bear in mind i am NOT much of a PERL programmer but definitely trying to learn.

here is the final script that at least goes all the way through the script without erroring except RPC server not available. Strange, i think i need to add some DNS checking or something to resolve the hostname or NBT.

use Win32::OLE;  
use Win32::OLE('in');  
use constant wbemFlagReturnImmediately =\> 0x10;  
use constant wbemFlagForwardOnly =\> 0x20;  
#use Win32::AdminMisc;

#Read from your selected file, make sure the path is right; you must use \\ or UNC \\\\  
#$computer="gws-379txt1337";  
open(DATA,"\<hosts.txt \n") || die "Could not open File!, check the path! \n";

while( my $computer = \<DATA\>)  
{  
print $computer;  
foreach $computer(in(\<DATA\>))  
{  
$objWMIService = Win32::OLE-\>GetObject  
("winmgmts:\\\\$computer\\root\\CIMV2") || die "WMI connection failed.\n";  
$colItems = $objWMIService-\>ExecQuery  
("SELECT \* FROM Win32\_OperatingSystem","WQL",wbemFlagReturnImmediately | wbemFlagForwardOnly);

foreach my $objItem (in $colItems)  
{  
print "Caption: $objItem-\>{Caption}\n";  
print "CSD Version: $objItem-\>{CSDVersion}\n";  
print "CS Name: $objItem-\>{CSName}\n";  
print "Name: $objItem-\>{Name}\n";  
print "Service Pack Major Version: $objItem-\>{ServicePackMajorVersion}\n";  
print "System Directory: $objItem-\>{SystemDirectory}\n";  
print "Windows Directory: $objItem-\>{WindowsDirectory}\n";  
print "\n";  
}  
}  
}  
close(DATA)

as i mentioned above, i get an RPC error and also another strange thing;

the hostnames are listed like :

the-999the-9999  
the-thisis5678  
th-999www9087

those are of course exampled of the format...but should i build some checking for dashes too? the computer name DOES get read into the script, i just get the RPC error on most except the example the-999the-9999.

thanks