Check out perlop and the ` backtick or qx operator. These run a command and capture the output.

Like this:

my @return = `ls -l`;
[download]

This is also a FAQ. Try running 'perldoc -q capture' from your commandline and you will see this FAQ.

Perldoc has many useful features besides the '-q' for FAQ keywords, you can find them by just running 'perldoc'

grep

grep> cd /pub grep> more beer