Trying to guess what you meant, I think you are complaining that the script waits for the program to finish before continuing to the code after system. I think the undocumented (at least until recently) incantation

    system( 1, "command that you want to run" );
[download]

...but I'm not sure that this is what you meant. Could you be more... specific? Some sample lines of code is often a big help. Also, "doesn't work" is never a good description of a failure. Do you get an error message? What did you expect that didn't happen? What happened that you didn't expect?

e.g.

$file = "test.txt";

$ext_out = `ls -l $file`;

print "$ext_out";
[download]

But, as cleen writes, you aren't being very clear.

This will help you if your question is what I think it is. (you can ignore the $\ assignments, that's me testing lazily :)

$\="\n";
print $$;
if ( open PROG, '/home/userxyz/prog.pl' ) {
  undef $/;
  eval <PROG>;
  warn  $@   if $@;
  close PROG or die $!;
}
print $$;
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
$|++;

$\="\n";
print $$;
[download]

Enjoy!

--
Casey

#!/jpsama/bin/perl -w
$tks = `mount`;
$jpsama = $! if $!;
print $jpsama;
[download]

To cause a program to run on another server, you'd need a protocol for doing that. Under NT, "Remote Cmd" (aka "RCmd") from the resource kit is not bad (rlogin and rsh from the resource kit are not good). If you installed the service on serverB, the service was running, you have rcmd.exe on serverA, and you are properly authenticated to serverB, then you could use:

    rcmd \\serverb path\test1.bat
[download]

But I won't go into this further because I don't think that is the best solution in this particular case.

When you run a program from Explorer, it usually runs the program with its default directory set to the directory where Explorer found the program. It sounds like just setting the default directory before running the program may fix your problem.

Now, you can't chdir('//serverB/directory$') because non-kernel processes on NT need a drive letter for their current directory. So you need to map a drive letter to that directory and chdir to the root directory of that drive. Win32::NetResource will let you map and unmap the drive letter.

I don't have Win32::NetResource examples handy or memorized so here is a non-Perl solution:

    pushd \\serverB\directory$
    test1.bat
    popd
[download]

For the greater good:

NAME
    Win32::NetResource - manage network resources in perl

SYNOPSIS
        use Win32::NetResource;

        $ShareInfo = {
                        'path' => "C:\\MyShareDir",
                        'netname' => "MyShare",
                        'remark' => "It is good to share",
                        'passwd' => "",
                        'current-users' =>0,
                        'permissions' => 0,
                        'maxusers' => -1,
                        'type'  => 0,
                        };
    
        Win32::NetResource::NetShareAdd( $ShareInfo,$parm )
            or die "unable to add share";

DESCRIPTION
    This module offers control over the network resources of Win32.Dis
+ks,
    printers etc can be shared over a network.

DATA TYPES
    There are two main data types required to control network resource
+s. In
    Perl these are represented by hash types.

    %NETRESOURCE
                      KEY                    VALUE
        
                      'Scope'         =>  Scope of an Enumeration
                                          RESOURCE_CONNECTED,
                                          RESOURCE_GLOBALNET,
                                          RESOURCE_REMEMBERED.
        
                      'Type'          =>  The type of resource to Enum
                                          RESOURCETYPE_ANY    All reso
+urces
                                          RESOURCETYPE_DISK    Disk re
+sources
                                          RESOURCETYPE_PRINT    Print 
+resources
        
                      'DisplayType'   =>  The way the resource should 
+be displayed.
                                          RESOURCEDISPLAYTYPE_DOMAIN  
+  
                                          The object should be display
+ed as a domain.
                                          RESOURCEDISPLAYTYPE_GENERIC 
+   
                                          The method used to display t
+he object does not matter.
                                          RESOURCEDISPLAYTYPE_SERVER  
+  
                                          The object should be display
+ed as a server.
                                          RESOURCEDISPLAYTYPE_SHARE   
+ 
                                          The object should be display
+ed as a sharepoint.
        
                      'Usage'         =>  Specifies the Resources usag
+e:
                                          RESOURCEUSAGE_CONNECTABLE
                                          RESOURCEUSAGE_CONTAINER.
        
                      'LocalName'     =>  Name of the local device the
+ resource is 
                                          connected to.
        
                      'RemoteName'    =>  The network name of the reso
+urce.
        
                      'Comment'       =>  A string comment.
        
                      'Provider'      =>  Name of the provider of the 
+resource.

    %SHARE_INFO
    This hash represents the SHARE_INFO_502 struct.

                      KEY                    VALUE
                      'netname'        =>    Name of the share.
                      'type'           =>    type of share.
                      'remark'         =>    A string comment.
                      'permissions'    =>    Permissions value
                      'maxusers'       =>    the max # of users.
                      'current-users'  =>    the current # of users.
                      'path'           =>    The path of the share.
                      'passwd'         =>    A password if one is req'
+d

FUNCTIONS
  NOTE

    All of the functions return FALSE (0) if they fail.

    GetSharedResources(\@Resources,dwType)
              Creates a list in @Resources of %NETRESOURCE hash refere
+nces.

              The return value indicates whether there was an error in
              accessing any of the shared resources. All the shared
              resources that were encountered (until the point of an e
+rror,
              if any) are pushed into @Resources as references to
              %NETRESOURCE hashes. See example below.

    AddConnection(\%NETRESOURCE,$Password,$UserName,$Connection)
              Makes a connection to a network resource specified by
              %NETRESOURCE

    CancelConnection($Name,$Connection,$Force)
              Cancels a connection to a network resource connected to 
+local
              device $name.$Connection is either 1 - persistent connec
+tion
              or 0, non-persistent.

    WNetGetLastError($ErrorCode,$Description,$Name)
              Gets the Extended Network Error.

    GetError( $ErrorCode )
              Gets the last Error for a Win32::NetResource call.

    GetUNCName( $UNCName, $LocalPath );
              Returns the UNC name of the disk share connected to $Loc
+alPath
              in $UNCName.

  NOTE

              $servername is optional for all the calls below. (if not
+ given
              the local machine is assumed.)

    NetShareAdd(\%SHARE,$parm_err,$servername = NULL )
              Add a share for sharing.

    NetShareCheck($device,$type,$servername = NULL )
              Check if a share is available for connection.

    NetShareDel( $netname, $servername = NULL )
              Remove a share from a machines list of shares.

    NetShareGetInfo( $netname, \%SHARE,$servername=NULL )
              Get the %SHARE_INFO information about the share $netname
+ on
              the server $servername.

    NetShareSetInfo( $netname,\%SHARE,$parm_err,$servername=NULL)
              Set the information for share $netname.

EXAMPLE
        #
        # This example displays all the share points in the entire
        # visible part of the network.
        #

        use strict;
        use Win32::NetResource qw(:DEFAULT GetSharedResources GetError
+);
        my $resources = [];
        unless(GetSharedResources($resources, RESOURCETYPE_ANY)) {
            my $err = undef;
            GetError($err);
            warn Win32::FormatMessage($err);
        }

        foreach my $href (@$resources) {
            next if ($$href{DisplayType} != RESOURCEDISPLAYTYPE_SHARE)
+;
            print "-----\n";
            foreach( keys %$href){
                print "$_: $href->{$_}\n";
            }
        }
[download]

--
Casey