What exacly do the following?
#! /usr/bin/perl -w
eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'
if 0; #$running_under_some_shell
- the
if 0
is never true, so the eval part will never executed,
- and the eval is strange too - what is the value of
$0
in this context (inside single quotes?)
Ps: taken from the result of the find2perl command
Best guess - as in this comment #$running_under_some_shell
, it's to detect if the script is being run by some shell other than perl, e.g. bash.
the if 0 is never true, so the eval part will never executed,
Not by perl, no. By other shells such as bash it won't spot the line continuation and will just execute the eval
statement. This then re-runs the script under perl. (Oddly with different options than the hashbang line.)
and the eval is strange too - what is the value of $0 in this context (inside single quotes?)
Again, this will be expanded by bash not perl: here it means the path to find2perl to pass into the perl interpreter.
I found some discussion here:
http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=825147
The extended hashbang is there so you
can run your Perl script with almost
any /bin/sh under the sun, even a
shell/kernel that does not honor the
hashbang and it will still launch perl
in the end.