Yes, that sums up the problem well :).
I was not sure how can I get the info that the first script prints out and I wasn't sure if it was a feature.
So I didn't consider it and went with checking the dates of the folders, which is not as good of an option.
This sounds like the solution I am searching for I will try to implement it.
Thank you very much for the help.

$script2 = `script1 arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4`;
$working_dir = &getWorkDir($script2);

sub getWorkDir {
    $text = @_;
    while($text) {
        if ($_ =~ ".*user_name.*"){
            my $dir = $_;
        }
    return $dir;
}
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$text = @_;
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This evaluates @_ in scalar context, returning the number of parameters instead of the actual value. Instead, use

my ($text) = @_;
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Also,

if ($_ =~ ".*user_name.*"){
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is better written as

if (/user_name/) {
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map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]||0,1}[\*||{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^*ARGV,3]

Your code as supplied does not compile:

$ perl -cw 11136410.pl 
Missing right curly or square bracket at 11136410.pl line 11, at end o
+f line
syntax error at 11136410.pl line 11, at EOF
11136410.pl had compilation errors.
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Other problems: you are not using strict, your scope of $dir is incorrect, there is no assignment to $_, you have scalar context when assigning the arguments in your subroutine and your while loop will never end.

Spend a little time trying to fix these issues and post back here if you get stuck.

---

🦛

There are so many errors in your subroutine that we are not sure what you are trying to do. I recommend that you study the documentation perlsub. I suspect that you are confusing us (and yourself) with a poor choice of variable names ($script1 for the name of a script file and $script2 for its output???). Given the code you have shown, $_ should not contain anything. You probably do not need a subroutine if all it does is extract the directory name from the script output. Use a regex with capture parenthesis in your main program.

We can provide much better help if you post a short program that we can run and duplicate your problem. Use use strict; use warnings and fix all errors and warnings that they cause. (Read the tutorial Short, Self-Contained, Correct Example)

Bill

Sorry I forgot to mention this was only a snippet of the whole program, and it wasn't exactly accurate to what I had in actual program.
I just wanted to illustrate what the direction in which I was headed for solving this.
Sorry also that I couldn't just paste the whole code.
Anyway in my actual program it turned out that the issue was the scope of the $dir variable in my subroutine as far as I can tell.
The program works correctly now.
I guess it would be better (also faster?) if it is done in the main program and not in a subroutine, but it was easier for me to follow what I am doing by writing subroutines. I am also not sure how to do what you mention.