{C} > ls Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp [.] [..] test.txt 1 File(s) 0 bytes {C} > xcopy "c:Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp\test.txt" "c:Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp\foo\" File not found - test.txt 0 File(s) copied {C} > xcopy "c:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp\test.txt" "c:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp\foo\" C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp\test.txt 1 File(s) copied {C} > ls Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp [.] [..] [foo] test.txt 1 File(s) 0 bytes {C} > ls fool Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp\foo [.] [..] test.txt 1 File(s) 0 bytes #### #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; my $und_db = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\My Documents\\tmp\\test.txt"; my $out_dir = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\My Documents\\tmp\\foo"; system('xcopy', "\"$und_db\"", "\"$out_dir\\\"", '/r', '/y', '/i'); #### {C} > test C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp\test.txt 1 File(s) copied {C} > ls foo Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\tmp\foo [.] [..] test.txt 1 File(s) 0 bytes