If local $SIG{CHLD} is clumsy, why not hide it?

# or whatever name you like, my_system, systemx, 
# safe_system, sig_system...
sub wrapped_system {
    # Use local signal handler so global handler
    # does not result in bad values in $? and $!
    local $SIG{CHLD}='';
    return system @_;
}
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If you run into this problem in more than one place in your code, moving this into a subroutine would make all that much more sense.
--
Mike