$ perl -V:sh sh='cmd /x /c'; $ perl -e die(1) 1 at -e line 1. $ perl -e " die(1) " 1 at -e line 1. $ perl -e ' die(1) ' Can't find string terminator "'" anywhere before EOF at -e line 1. $ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e 'die(1)' '???'; -e syntax OK $ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e "die(1)" die(1); -e syntax OK $ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e " system qw! perl -e warn(@ARGV) a r g v !" system('perl', '-e', 'warn(@ARGV)', 'a', 'r', 'g', 'v'); -e syntax OK $ perl -e " system qw! perl -e warn(@ARGV) a r g v !" argv at -e line 1.