$cmd = "htpasswd -b myusers user3 pass";

print <<EOF
Content-type: text/html

<pre>
Executing '$cmd'

EOF
;

# split the args into a list of strings
@args = split(/\s+/, $cmd);
# fork a new process off (child process gets 0 from this)
if( not ($kid = fork()) ) # are we the kid process?
{
        # if so, do what we want to do
        exec { $args[0] } @args;
        # exit cleanly
        exit(0);
}

# wait for the child to exit
waitpid($kid,0);
# print something back
print "\n\nAnd now we returned back\n";