Choosing between sh and perl for system scripts

[Ion-Mihai Tetcu]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 15:44:16 +0000
Jonathon McKitrick <jcm at FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> wrote:

> 
> Now that I have a desktop workstation and network, I'm trying to learn the
> true admin side of BSD, such as the periodic tasks, and how to automate
> things.  I see perl all over the system, and I know it's powerful and easy
> to use.  What might help me decide which tool would be best for the scripts
> I want to write?

Your own experience ;) 

sh is more portable, you will find it on almost every *nix; you will have to learn about it to understand
various scripts from the base system like (/usr/local)etc/rc.d/*;
make(1) has a very similar syntax.

perl on the other hand is more powerful and you have a lot of modules (CPAN).

You will end up knowing both, probably.


-- 
IOnut
Unregistered ;) FreeBSD user