what cops is

[Tom Christiansen]

Furthermore, you'll find that the perl version runs MUCH FASTER
than the shell version.  Notice, for example, the speed differences
in the is_able module.  There are several reasons for this:

    1) perl has direct access to system calls so doesn't have 
       to exec so many other programs.

    2) a lot more state can be saved for use between different
       modules (modes on files, passwd information, etc.)

    3) Certain algorithms have been rewritten for efficiency, 
       and somewhat for robustness/functionality.

Check out chk_strings.pl and is_able.pl to see what I mean.

--tom
--
Tom Christiansen		tchrist at convex.com	convex!tchrist
		"So much mail, so little time."