From perldoc -f system: 
 The return value is the exit status of the program as returned
               by the "wait" call.  To get the actual exit value, shif
+t right
               by eight (see below). See also "exec".  This is not wha
+t you
               want to use to capture the output from a command, for t
+hat you
               should use merely backticks or "qx//", as described in
               "`STRING`" in perlop.

[download]

So, if you are interested in the output of the external command, you need to use backticks or qx.

Note that system does not "skip" the shell at all.

Also, for portability sake, it's best to look for a builtin or module that will do what you want, rather than forking to the shell. Whether or not one is available, depends on what you are doing.

Cheers,
Darren :)

In reply to Re: collect output of system() by McDarren
in thread collect output of system() by vic

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.