Do you have a "./" in front of the program name...cuz that's the only way I can get the 'glob failed' error you are getting. That's why I mentioned to use the exact program that I posted in my latter post not the first time I posted code. First, here is confirmation between the different runs.

[cbro@chromium:~] $ /usr/local/bin/perl5.00503 testers.pl 

Success
[cbro@chromium:~] $ /usr/local/bin/perl6 testers.pl 

`./testers.sh`
[download]

Again, I only get the 'glob' failed if I do:

$prg = "testers.sh";
$ret_val = <`$prg`>
print "\n\n$ret_val\n\n";
[download]

This is fixed immediately when I do:

$prg = "./testers.sh";
[download]