Um, don't use "dir" to get a list of files, use Path::Tiny  my @files = path( '/somewhere/over' )->children( qr{\.pl$}i ); or File::Find::Rule  my @files = find( file => name => qr/\.pl$/, maxdepth => 1 , in => '/the/rainbow' );

No, you don't have to use those exact modules but they're the most convenient