Passing parameters to a subroutine in Perl

I am attempting to create a subroutine that will open and edit a file in place.

I've been able to get the subroutine to run on it's own as a single Perl script, but when it's in the form of a subroutine I can't pass the parameters properly.

I come from a background of VB.Net and Objective-C where subroutines/functions are prototyped.

$FileName is assigned $ARGV[0] upon executing the script.

Here's my function call:

addComment("v-66721", "Open", "!!!FINDING!!! deployment.config does not exist.", $FileName);

Here is my declaration:

sub addComment($$$$);

And here's the subroutine:

sub addComment {
    my $VULN     = $_[0];
    my $Result   = $_[1];
    my $Comment  = $_[2];
    my $FileName = $_[3];

    # Copy the checklist to a new file name.
    my $outputFile = $FileName;
    $outputFile =~ s/\.ckl/_commented\.ckl/;
    copy( $FileName, $outputFile );

    # Create a temporary file to edit.
    my $tempFile = $FileName;
    $tempFile =~ s/\.ckl/\.ckl_temp/;

    open( OLD, "<$outputFile" ) or die "Can't open $outputFile: $!";
    open( NEW, ">$tempFile" )   or die "Can't open $tempFile: $!";

    my $foundVULN = 0;

    while ( <OLD> ) {

        if ( $foundVULN == 0 && $_ =~ /$VULN/ ) {
            $foundVULN = 1;
        }

        if ( $foundVULN == 1 && $_ =~ /Not_Reviewed/ ) {
            s/Not_Reviewed/$Result/;
        }

        if ( $foundVULN == 1 && $_ =~ /COMMENTS/ ) {
            s/<COMMENTS>/<COMMENTS>$Comment/;
            $foundVULN = 0;
        }

        print NEW $_;
    }

    close(OLD);
    close(NEW);

    # Replace the output file contents with what we did in our temp file.
    rename( $tempFile, $outputFile ) or die "Can't rename $tempFile to $outputFile: $!";

    return;
}

I've tried using

my $VULN = shift

my $Result = shift

my $Comment = shift

my $FileName = shift

But that doesn't seem to work.

I've read that I should not use prototyping but it doesn't seem to work whether I do or not.

The error message I'm getting is:

Prototype mismatch: sub main::addComment ($$$$) vs none at ./Jre8_manual.pl line 614.

Solution

Avoid prototypes. Prototypes in Perl don't work the way they do in other languages and the way that new programmers expect.

Prototype mismatch ... means you have defined (or redefined) a method with a different prototype than the original declaration/definition. In this case.

sub addComment ($$$$);
sub addComment { ... }

have two different prototypes (that is, the second declaration has no prototype). To fix, you could make the sub definition use the same prototype

sub addComment ($$$$);
sub addComment ($$$$) { ... }

but in most cases you are better off without the prototype (and then you don't need the predeclaration, either)

# sub addComment ($$$$);  # don't need this
sub addComment { ... }