For what you want to do Capture::Tiny is the best

use Capture::Tiny qw/ capture /;
my @cmd = ( "...ls", 'dir' );
my( $stdout, $stderr, $exit ) = capture {
     system { $cmd[0] } @cmd;
};;
$exit and die "it failed with $exit and $stderr ";
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The alternatives are IPC::Open2, IPC::Open3...