After suppressing STDERR for a system() command, I can't seem to reactivate it afterwards, for subsequent system() commands. Here's the code: 
my @cmd = ("/bin/ls", "/doesntexist");

use vars qw(*OLDERR);
open OLDERR, ">&STDERR";
open STDERR, ">/dev/null";

  # STDERR suppressed
system(@cmd);

*STDERR = *OLDERR;

print STDERR "stderr is open\n";

  # STDERR should be open - but isn't
system(@cmd);

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Both system() commands produce an error message on STDERR, but the first one gets suppressed since STDERR points to nowhere land. However, after restoring STDERR, I would expect the 2nd system() to actually print the error message. Alas, what I get is this: 
stderr is open

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which means that the print STDERR works ok, but the system()'s STDERR channel is still blocked. Is this a bug?

In reply to Suppress/Reactivate STDERR by saintmike

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