in reply to Very curious Problem...

Is there any safer/simple way to "system"/run a command and get its output into a variable?

Use backtick (``) to run a command and get the output into a variable.

Update:

Adding Additional info.

I always use "qx" which is another form for backticks, which in perl will capture the return from the system call.

OR

Even check for capture and capturex methods in IPC::System::Simple module