G'day bill5262,

Welcome to the Monastery.

[Note: The language is "Perl"; the executable is "perl".]

The simplest method — although, I suspect, too simplistic for your needs — is to use backticks, i.e. `command`, or the equivalent qx{command}: see "perlop: Quote and Quote-like Operators". Another is the system function, which probably also falls into this "too simplistic" category.

You can use the open function to pipe to and from your command. Depending on how "new" you are, you may want to first read "perlintro: Files and I/O" and the tutorial perlopentut. "perlipc: Using open() for IPC" has more detailed information.

Also see the builtin "IPC::* modules" and the CPAN module Capture::Tiny.

All of the above is an attempt to head you in "the right direction", as requested. With more specific information from you, there may be better answers from us: these guidelines will help in that regard.