You won't believe it but...

print "# Command file is located at: $cmd_path\n" if (-e $cmd_path);

# system("ls -l $cmd_path");

if (-s $cmd_path) {# $cmd_path) {
  print "Good to go";
} else {
  print "Failed: $!";
}
[download]

gives "Failed: No such file or directory"

print "# Command file is located at: $cmd_path\n" if (-e $cmd_path);

system("ls -l $cmd_path");

if (-s $cmd_path) {# $cmd_path) {
  print "Good to go";
} else {
  print "Failed: $!";
}
[download]

gives "Good to go"

Same file, same code, same everything except that extra statement in between. An empty system(""); call does the same (works). Ideas?!