There are multiple solutions to this. The absolute safest is to launch the command: 
"perl", "-e", qq{chdir "/usr/bin"; exec @ARGV;}, $original_cmd, @args

[download]
Another cute one is to use my ReleaseAction. The following example is straight from the documentation: 
         use Carp;
         use Cwd;
         use ReleaseAction;

         sub cd_to {
           chdir($_[0]) or confess("Cannot chdir to $_[0]: $!");
         }

         sub tmp_cd {
           my $cwd = cwd();
           cd_to(shift);
           ReleaseAction->new(\&cd_to, $cwd);
         }

         sub something_interesting {
           my $in_dir = tmp_cd("some_dir");
           # Do something interesting in the new dir

           # I will automagically return to the old dir
           # when I exit the subroutine and $in_dir goes
           # out of scope.
         }

[download]
Note that this is less safe than the previous solution because if someone renames or deletes your previous working dir, when you try to cd back you will fail (or worse yet will succeed in going to the wrong place). However that risk is miniscule, and when I had to write lots of batch jobs, it was a risk that I was generally willing to accept.

In reply to Re: Best way to change directories for a script? by tilly
in thread Best way to change directories for a script? by Anonymous Monk

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.