I am trying to make a function similar to system(), which collects stdin and stdout as well.
I know that there are some modules with stuff like that.
But the purpose of this is a) to learn and b) to have this simple task solved without big module.

So I have a subroutine "system2" in the code below.
It takes as argument a command line string, and other stuff.

This subroutine "system2" gets called from the subroutine "main" at the end of the code.
To test it, I am using a simple C program:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
fprintf(stdout,"This is output on stdout! \n");
fprintf(stderr,"This is output on stderr! \n");
sleep(10);
return 0;
}
[download]

My Perl script described above is this:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use POSIX ":sys_wait_h";

$|++;   # away with buffering

# stringref read_a_file( string filename)
sub read_a_file
{
    my $fn = shift;
    local $/ = undef;
    open FILE, $fn or return undef;
    my $text = <FILE>;
    close FILE or return undef;
    return \$text;
}

# int system2( string cmdline,
#                 stringref retmsg,
#                 stringref stdoutttxr,
#                 stringref stderrtxr)
sub system2
{
    my $er = shift;
    my $cmd = shift;
    my $stdouttxr = shift;
    my $stderrtxr = shift;
    my $retval;

    my $stdoutfn = '/tmp/teststdout';
    my $stderrfn = '/tmp/teststderr';

    unlink ($stdoutfn) if (-e $stdoutfn);
    unlink ($stderrfn) if (-e $stderrfn);
    my $pid = fork();
    if ($pid < 0) {
        $$er .= "Forking failed with return code $pid.";
        return $pid;
    } elsif ($pid == 0) {
        # CHILD
use POSIX qw(setsid);
        setsid() or die "Can't start a new session: $!";
        chdir('/');
        $SIG{HUP} = 'IGNORE';
        umask 0033;
        close STDIN or die;
        close STDOUT or die;
        close STDERR or die;
        open(STDIN, '</dev/null') or die;
        open(STDOUT, ">$stdoutfn") or die;
        open(STDERR, ">$stderrfn") or die;

        my @argv = split(/ /, $cmd);
        exec( @argv);
    }
    my $wpid = waitpid($pid,0);
    my $normalexit = WIFEXITED(${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE});

    if ($normalexit) {
        $retval = WEXITSTATUS(${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE});
    } else {
        if (WIFSIGNALED(${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE})) {
            $$er .= "Child terminated due to signal";
            if (WTERMSIG(${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE})) {
                $$er .= ": SIGTERM";
            }
        }
    }
    if (-e $stdoutfn) {
        if (-s $stdoutfn) {
            my $s = read_a_file($stdoutfn);
            die if (not defined $s);
            $$$stdouttxr = $s;
        }
        unlink ($stdoutfn);
    }
    if (-e $stderrfn) {
        if (-s $stderrfn) {
            my $s = read_a_file($stderrfn);
            die if (not defined $s);
            $$$stderrtxr = $s;
        }
        unlink ($stderrfn);
    }

    return $retval;
}

sub main
{
    my $er = '';
    my $cmd = '/path_to_a_out/a.out';
    my $stdouttxr = undef;
    my $stderrtxr = undef;

    my $ret = system2($cmd,\$er,\$stdouttxr,\$stderrtxr);
    if (defined $ret) {
        print "return value = '$ret'\n";
    } else {
        print "return value = undef\n";
    }
    if ($er ne '') {
        print "Error text: '$er'\n";
    } else {
        print "No error text!\n";
    }
    if (defined $stdouttxr) {
        print "STDOUT: '$$$stdouttxr'\n";
    } else {
        print "No stdout output!\n";
    }
    if (defined $stderrtxr) {
        print "STDERR: '$$$stderrtxr'\n";
    } else {
        print "No stderr output!\n";
    }

    return 0;
}

exit main();
[download]

No matter whether I use '/path_to_a_out/a.out' or 'exec /path_to_a_out/a.out' as command string, the output is always this:

% perl -w system2.pl
return value = '2'
No error text!
No stdout output!
STDERR: 'sh: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ")")
'
%
[download]

This looks to me as if Perl gives something to sh, which the latter is unable to swallow.
Any idea what am I doing wrong?

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