if you want to capture STDOUT and STDERR, IPC::Open3 is an answer. be careful, it can be tricky to use if you don't want to risk deadlock (a worry for large output streams.)

there are some examples here (search for things like 'capture STDERR STDOUT' or 'Open3'). also, there are some excellent threads at c.l.p.m -- Avoiding deadlocks with IPC::Open3()? or Capturing STDOUT and STDERR and preserving order?

~Particle ;Þ