for $file (@files){ $string = "open (A$file, \"perl part2.pl $file|\")"; eval $string; # Error checking omitted for simplicity } #### use Symbol qw( gensym ); for $file (@files){ open( my $fh= gensym(), "perl part2.pl $file |" ); # Error checking omitted for simplicity } #### for $file (@files){ system( 1, "perl part2.pl $file" ); # Error checking omitted for simplicity }