http://perldoc.perl.org/perlport.html#system Failure to spawn() a subprocess is indicated by setting $? to "255 << 8"

I definitely missed that. Seems like an odd choice for a sentinel value, though. I'm surprised '-1' wasn't used for consistency.

In reply to Re^3: Why doesn't 'system' return '-1' when a program fails to start on Windows? by jkahrman
in thread Why doesn't 'system' return '-1' when a program fails to start on Windows? by jkahrman

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