I don't know what to tell you; it most certainly does in current perls, and based on the doc, did so in 5.005 too. Try this: 
$ perl -we'open FOO, q<| sh -c "sleep 5;exit 123"> or die; print "clos
+ing:\n"; close FOO; print $? >> 8'
closing:
123

[download]
to verify that close() is waiting for the process to finish and putting its status in $?.

(Update: removed lexical filehandle; I'd really like to see you try the above on your SunOS 5.005.)

I'm looking for a job.

In reply to Re^4: close statement issue by ysth
in thread close statement issue by Anonymous Monk

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