I'm not sure if this is relevant, but check the following node:
Re: system command erroneously states 'can't spawn <executable>' from jimbojones
The code (from 5.8.9) win32.c that might be causing the problem
int
Perl_do_aspawn(pTHX_ SV *really, SV **mark, SV **sp)
{
char **argv;
char *str;
int status;
int flag = P_WAIT;
int index = 0;
if (sp <= mark)
return -1;
get_shell();
Newx(argv, (sp - mark) + w32_perlshell_items + 2, char*);
if (SvNIOKp(*(mark+1)) && !SvPOKp(*(mark+1))) {
++mark;
flag = SvIVx(*mark);
}
while (++mark <= sp) {
if (*mark && (str = SvPV_nolen(*mark)))
argv[index++] = str;
else
argv[index++] = "";
}
argv[index++] = 0;
status = win32_spawnvp(flag,
(const char*)(really ? SvPV_nolen(really) : argv[0]),
(const char* const*)argv);
if (status < 0 && (errno == ENOEXEC || errno == ENOENT)) {
/* possible shell-builtin, invoke with shell */
int sh_items;
sh_items = w32_perlshell_items;
while (--index >= 0)
argv[index+sh_items] = argv[index];
while (--sh_items >= 0)
argv[sh_items] = w32_perlshell_vec[sh_items];
status = win32_spawnvp(flag,
(const char*)(really ? SvPV_nolen(really) : argv[0]
+),
(const char* const*)argv);
}
if (flag == P_NOWAIT) {
PL_statusvalue = -1; /* >16bits hint for pp_system() */
}
else {
if (status < 0) {
if (ckWARN(WARN_EXEC))
Perl_warner(aTHX_ packWARN(WARN_EXEC), "Can't spawn \"%s\": %s
+", argv[0], strerror(errno));
status = 255 * 256;
}
else
status *= 256;
PL_statusvalue = status;
}
Safefree(argv);
return (status);
}
Notice that if the executable returns a negative error code, the assumption is that the
spawn didn't work.