It seems this is a meme that just won't roll over and die...

The construct, system(...) or die_warn_etc() is almost never what you want. The return value of system() is the exit value of the command executed. Usually, this will be 0 on success. Some alternatives:

system(...) and die;                    # Ugly.

if ( system(...) != 0 ) { die }         # C-ish

if ( system(...) ) { die }              # C-ish and ugly. 

unless ( system(...) == 0 ) { die }     # Nicer
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I think it is better to explicitly compare to 0. It serves as a reminder that system() is a bit different than most functions in this respect.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";