Why can you not do similar to the following ... 

perl -e "print qx[du /dir/path]" &

[download]
... ?

use AnyEvent::Fork as a faster fork+exec seems to provide enough code for OP (could be overkill).

Not directly related to OP ...

I was thinking of IPC::Run, open3, etc. when I read OP but that by itself won't run in background (well, short of /some/program &).

That Proc::Background sure is nice for it takes care of fork, child pid, and the related bits. But of course does not have the facility to get to the output.

Then there is No::Worries::Proc which can provide command output. Also, installs default signal handlers that I do appreciate. I, however, cannot get over the namespace of No::Worries!? There are bound to be issues despite the gratuitous misuse of the namespace by virtue of being the "First!".

I wonder if P::Background could be modified to capture the output in minimum of code (unlike N::W::Proc), with addition of signal handlers ... though having read AE::Fork, I am leaning toward it.

In reply to Re: running a cmd in background and capturing the output by Anonymous Monk
in thread running a cmd in background and capturing the output by PBeginner

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.