The [p] should obviate the need for grep -v, but maybe you should use quotes around the pattern: grep '[p]erl', or better yet, 
my $procs = grep /perl/, qx(ps aux);

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In reply to Re^2: Where does the 6th process come from? by Anonymous Monk
in thread Where does the 6th process come from? [SOLVED] by karlgoethebier

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