PERL Data File Search Script

In the Powershell - Get Inventory Script process I posted last month I briefly mentioned a web based server script that we use to search the data output files we copy to our intranet server. Because I have noticed a significant boost in traffic to the website hosting the Get Inventory Script, I have cleaned up and rewritten the PERL script I developed for searching these files and I am making it available here. I used PERL for this task as the process runs for us, on a Linux intranet server, which of course has PERL natively installed.

This PERL script is designed to locate all the HTML files in a single directory. These files are in fact named for the hostname of the workstations that originally generated them when they were created by the Powershell - Get Inventory Script, so the script either searches for computer names and displays the complete data sets for each computer on one page, or it searches each file to locate the data string requested and displays the results. Which type of search is in fact done, is dependant on the users choice in the original search (Hostname or Keyword). If a Keyword search is selected any HTML tags in the source code are removed, before comparing the remaining text data with the string being sort. This reduces the number of false hits!

By searching all the data files harvested (copied) from the workstations there is no need to set up a database to store the data and the interaction overhead this causes. Because we are seaching ALL the files content we are able to effectively isolate discrete data quickly. For example: If I am asked for the number of installations of EndNote we have. I can set up a Keyword search for EndNote the returning data will advise me of the number of workstations with Endnote (124 as of writing) and then list for me the names of the workstations followed by the version details of EndNote on each workstation.

Links:

Download and implement the PERL Data File Search Script.

View the Powershell - Get Inventory Script post.