Why doesn't Perl's $OSNAME work on Solaris?

Question

I remember having used the variable $OSNAME in Linux.

Currently I'm working on a project on Solaris where I need to get the OS name and that variable is not working on Solaris.

Even a simple one line program does not work:

print "OS is $OSNAME\n";

it prints

OS is 

Please help.

Answer 1

You need to use the English module.

$OSNAME is actually an alias for $^O, you can use $^O without using English module but to use $OSNAME you need to use the English module.

Also since use strict is missing you did not get any errors.

Always use use strict; in your program, it will help you catch these kinds of errors.

So try:

use English;
use strict;

print "Operating system is $OSNAME\n";