NewsForge: Command Line Perl for Sysadmins

“Using perl -e allows you to specify a script right
on the command line. It’s a powerful, underused feature even for
people who use Perl regularly. Perl’s powerful command line options
make it a more flexible replacement for sed, awk, and even vi.
Combine perl -e with the command line editing
capability of modern shells and you can, write, test, and debug in
record time.

“The -p option tells Perl to act as a stream editor
similar to sed and awk. Perl with the -e and
-p options can make a nice addition to your Unix
toolbox. Perl has a more familiar syntax than sed and awk for C
programmers, and much more powerful programming constructs…”

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