Problem executing fc.exe through workflow.

Hi,

I have a workflow with an externaltask which calls an perl script set to 'command' parameter of the task. Inside the perl script I'm comparing two text files using windows utility fc.exe
The arguments to fc.exe are two file names with path and option /W to ignore tabs and white space.

If I run the perl script as is on command line passing $jobid, $taskid and $areapath, it works fine and I see the expected result. But if the same taks is called through workflow I don't see any output nor I see any error message in iwjoberrors.log

I tried both the option of executing system commands .ie backtick (`$cmd`)and system($cmd) inside perl.

I would like to know if anybody has any pointers, suggestion for me..

Thanks

JL

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Adam Stoller

Hi,

I have a workflow with an externaltask which calls an perl script set to 'command' parameter of the task. Inside the perl script I'm comparing two text files using windows utility fc.exe
The arguments to fc.exe are two file names with path and option /W to ignore tabs and white space.

If I run the perl script as is on command line passing $jobid, $taskid and $areapath, it works fine and I see the expected result. But if the same taks is called through workflow I don't see any output nor I see any error message in iwjoberrors.log

I tried both the option of executing system commands .ie backtick (`$cmd`)and system($cmd) inside perl.

I would like to know if anybody has any pointers, suggestion for me..

Thanks

JL

An externaltask script is intended to be run non-interactively - meaning that there is no STDOUT for the user to see (it might be getting placed in one of the log files - but almost definitely not the iwjoberrors.log - probably one of the iwui/*log files)

If you want to see the output - you would need to either log it to a file somewhere - or, probably better, make this a cgitask instead of an externaltask and modify the script accordingly.

Migrateduser

Thanks Fish.
Yes, I'm redirecting to an log file as shown below:
my $output = `fc.exe /W $file1 $file2 > C:\\Interwoven\\OpenDeployNG\\scripts\\qna\\logs\\myoutput.txt`;

myoutput.txt is getting created but no info on it.

To my surprise, I tried replacing fc.exe with help.exe (which print window's commands) and I see all the help information in myoutput.txt

I will also give a shot making this as cgitask.

Thanks
JL

nipper

Thanks Fish.
Yes, I'm redirecting to an log file as shown below:
my $output = `fc.exe /W $file1 $file2 > C:\\Interwoven\\OpenDeployNG\\scripts\\qna\\logs\\myoutput.txt`;

myoutput.txt is getting created but no info on it.

To my surprise, I tried replacing fc.exe with help.exe (which print window's commands) and I see all the help information in myoutput.txt

I will also give a shot making this as cgitask.

Thanks
JL

Print your exact command to a log file and run it from a DOS shell.

Andy

ISCBorisB

Thanks Fish.
Yes, I'm redirecting to an log file as shown below:
my $output = `fc.exe /W $file1 $file2 > C:\\Interwoven\\OpenDeployNG\\scripts\\qna\\logs\\myoutput.txt`;

myoutput.txt is getting created but no info on it.

To my surprise, I tried replacing fc.exe with help.exe (which print window's commands) and I see all the help information in myoutput.txt

I will also give a shot making this as cgitask.

Thanks
JL

You may want to take a look [thread=19189]here[/thread]. Please note however that workaround I've proposed in this thread may not be a good idea inside external task

ProjectGantt.rptdesign

Migrateduser

Please see the output below when I run the script in command line:

C:\>C:\temp\perl\bin\perl C:\Interwoven\OpenDeployNG\scripts\qna\bin\validate-akamai.ipl 19834 19842 /default/
main/Content/WORKAREA/htdocs
Whee, it worked! I got that text/html document!

OUTPUT
--------
Following expected message is logged to myoutput.txt:

Comparing files C:\INTERWOVEN\OPENDEPLOYNG\SCRIPTS\QNA\LOGS\purgetest.html and C:\INTERWOVEN\OPENDEPLOYNG\SCRIPTS\QNA\LOGS\PURGETEST1.HTML
FC: no differences encountered

Thanks
JL

Adam Stoller

Thanks Fish.
Yes, I'm redirecting to an log file as shown below:
my $output = `fc.exe /W $file1 $file2 > C:\\Interwoven\\OpenDeployNG\\scripts\\qna\\logs\\myoutput.txt`;

myoutput.txt is getting created but no info on it.

To my surprise, I tried replacing fc.exe with help.exe (which print window's commands) and I see all the help information in myoutput.txt

I will also give a shot making this as cgitask.

Thanks
JL

First - I prefer to use forward-slashes as it is less "ugly" and more portable.
Second - I prefer to use qx() rather than `` as it is clearer in the long run
Third - you probably need to redirect STDERR into STDOUT:

my $output = qx(fc.exe /W $file1 $file2 > C:/Interwoven/OpenDeploy/scripts/qna/logs/myoutput.txt 2>&1);

Try that and see if it works any better for you.

nipper

Please see the output below when I run the script in command line:

C:\>C:\temp\perl\bin\perl C:\Interwoven\OpenDeployNG\scripts\qna\bin\validate-akamai.ipl 19834 19842 /default/
main/Content/WORKAREA/htdocs
Whee, it worked! I got that text/html document!

OUTPUT
--------
Following expected message is logged to myoutput.txt:

Comparing files C:\INTERWOVEN\OPENDEPLOYNG\SCRIPTS\QNA\LOGS\purgetest.html and C:\INTERWOVEN\OPENDEPLOYNG\SCRIPTS\QNA\LOGS\PURGETEST1.HTML
FC: no differences encountered

Thanks
JL

So, when you ran it (through the perl script used in the external task), it worked fine.

One difference is the user running the process.

If Adam's suggestion does not shed any light on the issue, then try to change the output file to my_output_$wfid.txt

Migrateduser

"First - I prefer to use forward-slashes as it is less "ugly" and more portable.
Second - I prefer to use qx() rather than `` as it is clearer in the long run
Third - you probably need to redirect STDERR into STDOUT:
my $output = qx(fc.exe /W $file1 $file2 > C:/Interwoven/OpenDeploy/scripts/qna/logs/myoutput.txt 2>&1);
Try that and see if it works any better for you."

This did not do any better...

Thanks
JL

ISCBorisB

"First - I prefer to use forward-slashes as it is less "ugly" and more portable.
Second - I prefer to use qx() rather than `` as it is clearer in the long run
Third - you probably need to redirect STDERR into STDOUT:
my $output = qx(fc.exe /W $file1 $file2 > C:/Interwoven/OpenDeploy/scripts/qna/logs/myoutput.txt 2>&1);
Try that and see if it works any better for you."

This did not do any better...

Thanks
JL

TeamSite::WFtask redirects STDOUT Filehandle. That's why you have your output
in CLT mode but not from the external task. You should not test for that with
core shell functions like help or dir, they output without using Filehandle.
(fc is not core). Better testing string would be something like qx(iwperl -e "print 'hello';");

You can try a workaround I've proposed in the thread mentioned earlier, if it messes up your
task (I doubt it will) you can perhaps do the trick after transition but before script ends.