It looks like this is the distilled version of what I will try. The validation of the two variables takes place earlier in another function. 

$ENV{'PATH'}=q(/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin);

my ($um,$gm);

qx/usermod --login $newname --home $newname $oldname/;
$um = $?;
if ($um==0) {
    qx/groupmod --new-name $newname $oldname/;
    $gm = $?;
}

[download]

Ideas or corrections?

No output is produced, so I don't try to capture any. And the home directory gets reassigned and renamed elsewhere, too, since I have a little non-standard home directory arrangement for those groups.

In reply to Re^4: Linux::usermod - user name ... already exists by mldvx4
in thread Linux::usermod - user name ... already exists by mldvx4

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