Return code and output of system command?

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi! I'd like to run a system command (eg. host -v www.perlmonks.org) and get the output saved in a variable (for parsing etc.) AND the return code to test wether the command succeeded. This is how I do it to get the output in a variable:

    my $command = "host -v www.perlmonks.org 2>&1 |";
    
    my $buff;

    if ( open( CMD, $command ) ) {
        while (<CMD>) {
            $buff .= "$_";
        }
        close(CMD);
    }
    
    # do some parsing with $buff etc.
    
    # print $buff
    print "Output:\n$buff";
[download]

But this code doesn't give me the return code. To get only the return code I would use the following code:

    my $RC = system("host","-v","www.perlmonks.org");
    $RC = $RC/256;
    print "RC:\n$RC";
[download]

Now what I need is a combined version to get the return code and the output of the system command. Thanks for any advice

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•Re: Return code and output of system command? by merlyn (Sage) on Apr 01, 2003 at 23:05 UTC
The `close` on a process-pipe-filehandle waits for the process to finish, and puts the exit status into `$?` (interpreted in the usual way). -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply]
Re: •Re: Return code and output of system command? by Anonymous Monk on Apr 02, 2003 at 14:14 UTC
This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!	[reply]
Re: Return code and output of system command? by grantm (Parson) on Apr 01, 2003 at 21:50 UTC
Could you not just use backticks and get the exit status from $?	[reply]
Re: Return code and output of system command? by Pardus (Pilgrim) on Apr 02, 2003 at 00:05 UTC
update: ooops didn't read the question good enough Use Shell, this module comes with perl5's basic package and does this by means of an autoloader routine. `use Shell; my @list = ls(qw/-al/); # guess what @list is :)` [download] -- Jaap Karssenberg \|\| Pardus (Larus)? <pardus@cpan.org> >>>> Zoidberg: So many memories, so many strange fluids gushing out of patients' bodies.... <<<<	[reply] [d/l]