Machine hardware:   sun4u
OS version:         5.8
Processor type:     sparc
Hardware:           SUNW,Sun-Fire-880
Perl version : This is perl, version 5.005_03 built for sun4-solaris
#!/bin/perl
#hostname.pl
use subs qw(getHostname LoginName HostEntry GetNetByName);
my $hostname="not defined";
print "hostname: $hostname\n";
print "*****\n";
getHostname;
print "****\n";

sub getHostname {
  #print "Hostname: ";
  system "/bin/hostname";
  #print "\n";
  #$hostname = system "/bin/hostname";
  #$hostname = exec "/bin/hostname";
  #$hostname = syscall "/bin/hostname";
  #print "Hostname: $hostname\n";
  return 0;
}

##</code><code>##

perl hostname.pl
hostname: not defined
*****
correct_UNIX_box_name
****

##</code><code>##

sub getHostname {
  $hostname = system "/bin/hostname";
  print "Hostname: ", $hostname, "\n";
  return 0;
}

##</code><code>##

perl hostname.pl
hostname: not defined
*****
correct_UNIX_box_name
Hostname: 0
****

##</code><code>##

print "Hostname: ";
getHostname;

sub getHostname {
  system "/bin/hostname";
  return 0;
}

##</code><code>##

Hostname:

##</code><code>##

correct_UNIX_box_name

##</code><code>##

perl hostname.pl
hostname: not defined
*****
correct_UNIX_box_name
Hostname: ****