system("rm -rf $tmp_dir/*");

##</code><code>##

    use File::Spec;
    system("rm -rf " . File::Spec->catfile($tmpdir, "*"));

##</code><code>##

    use File::Path;
    my $tmp_dir = "/tmp/blahblah-11-14-2000";
    rmtree($tmp_dir);    # no error check; doesn't matter if it doesn't exist
    mkdir($tmp_dir) or die "Unable to make temporary folder $tmp_dir: $!\n";