(R)?ex the friendly automation framework

News

2023-08-05
Rex-1.14.3

Rex-1.14.3 is now available on CPAN. It contains bug fixes for local package installation, command existence checks, and Git tests.

2023-05-05
Rex-1.14.2

The Rex-1.14.2 release is now available on CPAN. It contains bug fixes for running local commands on Windows, cloning git repositories, and test suite fixes for the upcoming perl-5.38.0 release.

2023-03-17
Call for papers TPRC 2023

Dean Hamstead from the The Perl and Raku Foundation Marketing Committee has sent an invitation to present about Rex at TPRC 2023. I’m posting it here to increase visibility.

2023-03-05
Rex-1.14.1

The Rex-1.14.1 release is now available on CPAN. It contains bug fixes and documentation updates.

2023-02-05
Rex-1.14.0

The Rex-1.14.0 release is now available on CPAN. It contains improved Rexfile loading, documentation updates, and bumps the minimum required Perl version to 5.12.5.

Events

2021-03-08
Learning automation using Rex

Ferenc Erki (FErki) will be the guest of Gábor Szabó on the next Code Maven live stream to learn about automation using Rex. Register for the free event via Code Maven or Meetup, and join the discussion!

2020-03-05
Unexpected use cases with Rex

Unexpected use cases with Rex at the 22nd German Perl/Raku Workshop 2020 in Erlangen by Ferenc Erki (FErki).

2019-11-09
Rex & Friends

Rex & Friends talk at the Barcelona Perl & Friends 2019 by Ferenc Erki (FErki).

» Home » Docs » Guides » Just enough Perl for Rex

Just enough Perl for Rex

Perl is a scripting language designed to keep easy things easy, and make hard things possible. In this tutorial you will learn just enough Perl to write your own Rex tasks.

If you have suggestions or wishes, tell us on IRC, or just send a pull request against the GitHub repository.

Variables

Scalar variables

Scalars can contain single items, like strings, numbers, objects or references.

my $name  = 'John';     # this is a string
my $age   = 28;         # this is a number (integer)
my $float = 28.5;       # also a number, but a float
my $car   = Car->new(); # this is an object from the class Car

Array variables

Arrays are lists of scalars. Like a grocery list.

my @names  = ( 'John', 'Fred', 'Charley' );
my @to_buy = qw( Cheese Butter Salt );     # qw() quotes the words

To access an array element you have to use its index, which starts at zero:

say 'First name is: ' . $names[0];
say 'Last name is: ' . $name[2];
say 'Also the last name: ' . $name[-1];

Split a string into an array:

my $string = 'John,Fred,Charley';
my @names  = split( /,/, $string );

Join the items of an array into a string:

my @names  = qw( John Fred Charley );
my $string = join( ',', @names );    # -> John,Fred,Charley

If you want to iterate over an array, do it like this:

for my $name (@names) {
    say "Current name: $name"; # double quotes make variables interpolated
}

Hash variables

Hashes are like arrays, but with named indexes, called keys.

my %person = (
    name => 'John',
    age  => 28,    # good practice to keep a trailing comma
);

To access a hash element you have to use its key:

say 'Name: ' . $person{'name'};
say 'Age: ' . $person{age}; # perl can autoquote simple key names for you

If you want to iterate over a hash, do it like this:

for my $key ( keys %person ) {
    say "key: $key -> value: " . $person{$key};
}

But remember an important note: hashes are always unsorted.

Conditional statements

if ( $name eq 'John' ) {
    say 'Hello, my name is John!';
}
else {
    say 'Well, my name is not John...';
}

if ( $name ne 'John' ) {
    say 'Well, my name is not John...';
}
else {
    say 'Hello, my name is John!';
}

if ( $age < 30 ) {
    say 'I am younger than 30.';
}
elsif ( $age >= 30 && $age <= 50 ) {
    say 'Well, I am between 30 and 50.';
}
else {
    say 'I am older than 50.';
}

Loops

for my $num ( 1 .. 5 ) {
    say "> $num";
}

# looping over an array
for my $item (@array) {
    say "> $item";
}

Regular expressions

my $name = 'John';

if ( $name =~ m/john/ ) { # will _not_ match, because the 'J' in $name is uppercase
}

if ( $name =~ m/john/i ) { # _will_ match, because we use the 'i' modifier for case-insensitive matching
}

$name =~ s/john/Fred/i;    # this will replace the first match of 'john' (regardless of its case) with 'Fred'
$name =~ s/john/Fred/ig;   # this will replace all matches of 'john' (regardless of its case) with 'Fred'

Subroutines

sub my_function { # define the subroutine called 'my_function'
}

sub my_function2 { # @_ contains the parameters passed to the subroutine
    my ( $param1, $param2 ) = @_;
}

my_function();     # call the function 'my_function'
my_function;       # also calls 'my_function', but harder to read due to missing parentheses
&my_function;      # also calls 'my_function', but with a deprecated old notation

my_function2( 'john', 28 ); # call 'my_function2' with 2 parameters
my_function2 'john', 28;    # does the same, but harder to read due to missing parentheses

Useful helpers

Dump the content of a scalar, array or hash:

use Data::Dumper;
say Dumper($scalar);
say Dumper(@array);
say Dumper(%hash);

More documentation

If you want to learn more Perl you can find a great online tutorial on Perl Maven.

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