If you insist on using UNIX commands only you should consider using qx instead of system and wrap the calls into eval blocks and examine $?>>8 and $@ afterwards.

But you should keep in mind that Perl provides some other mighty weapons, like File::Find::Rule, IO::All, Cwd, File::Copy, Archive::Tar, Try::Tiny and IPC::Run. Some bro(s) mentioned this already ;-)

Edit: Fixed typo.

Best regards, Karl