Well perl's exec() function as far as I know does nothing more than call the sytem's exec(). update: but yes, I meant the underlying mechanics, not perl's buildin functions.

Running the program manually takes effectively zero seconds, as indicated by my mentions of the fact that running it with exec() is essentially instantaneous.

I thought you meant it started immediately, I didn't see anything about it also finishing quickly.

It may be that the command is checking slowed down / confused by the capturing of it's STDOUT. it might be looking for a tty or something similar. In that case, the easiest solution should be to use system() (or exec(), ofcourse)

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

In reply to Re^5: exec vs. backtick-and-assign performance by Joost
in thread exec vs. backtick-and-assign performance by apotheon

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.