# one way:

my $content = `other_script`;
die "No output from other_script" unless ( $content );

# another way:

open( SCR, "other_script |" ) or die "other_script failed: $!";
print while (<SCR>);
close SCR;

# the only other way:

my $tmpfile = function_returning_uniq_name();
my $status = system( "other_script > $tmpfile" );
die "other_script failed" if ( $status or -s $tmpfile == 0 );

open( TMP, $tmpfile ) or die "WTF?? can't open $tmpfile: $!";
print <TMP>;
close TMP:
unlink $tmpfile;