Passing variables to an external script

[sloppyhack]

I have some very memory intensive processing that I'm trying to consolidate via multiple scripts...so when each process if finished..it will return the memory to the OS. I know how to call external scripts with backticks..and pass arguments as literals. Is it possible to pass variables..or complex data structures? Even a simple array? Like....

@output = `externalprocess.pl @array`;

Just trying to find a good way to get the imput information from script to script without a lot of file reading. I'm assuming the shell wont be able to interpret the variables, but I'm a newbie with running external processes. I could just write the data out to a directory and reread it for every external process, but that seems silly.

Cheers,

Sloppyhack

 

[sloppyhack]

I'm consolidating multiple scripts via a wrapper script calling external processes with backticks. Didn't make that very clear. Just trying to find a good way to get the imput data from script to script.

Cheers,

Sloppyhack