I have this multi-platform application. it launches children that run for a short period of time.

I need to communicate from parent to child.

so just before launching the child, I do
$ENV{'varname'}='value';

and in the child, I get the environment variable and all is well.

this works on Windows without problem, but the variable does not show up for the linux child. in both cases I am actually starting a command shell script. xxx.cmd on Windows and xxx.sh on linux. the set command dumps the environment, and on linux the variable is not set when xxx.sh is started.

I do not need the value to be persistent, and I understand the reasons and issues there.

one piece of info, the child is started with OPEN so that the parent can monitor the childs console output 
    if($environmentDetails->GetValue() eq "Yes"){
        $ENV{'SKIP_SYSTEM'}='0';
        }
    else{
        $ENV{'SKIP_SYSTEM'}='1';
    }
    
    # have to execute the shell script from the current folder..
    # *ix is picky, you must be explicit
    open(CMD, ( ($^O eq 'MSWin32' ) ? "":"./")."$command 2>&1 |");
    while(<CMD>){
        $detailsInfo->AppendText($_);
    }

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on perl 5.10, linux fedora 10, 32 bit (can't update for other reasons)

In reply to passing env{} variable to child fails on linux,works on windows by sdetweil

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