"...alternatives..."

Avoiding to shell out might be one:

#!/usr/bin/env perl

#       $Id: procs.pl,v 1.2 2017/08/02 07:39:39 karl Exp karl $
# http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1196387

use strict;
use warnings;
use feature qw(say );
use Proc::ProcessTable;
use Data::Dump;

my $cmndline  = qr(syslog);
my @processes = @{ Proc::ProcessTable->new->table };

for my $process (@processes) {
    say $process->cmndline;
}

# dd \@processes;

my $found =
  grep { $_->cmndline =~ /$cmndline/ } @processes;

say $found;

__END__
[download]

See also Proc::ProcessTable.

Regards, Karl