foreach my $file (@list) { my $Newfile = substr($file, 0, 2); $Newfile = $Newfile . $extension; print "($function) $message $file to $Newfile\n"; @args = ("$function", "$parm", "$Newfile", "$file"); system(@args) == 0 or die "system @args failed: $?"; push @returnlist, $Newfile; }