I don't use windows, but if you are taking an input file and writing to an output file, you are better off running it in a separate thread. On linux, we usually call it "fork and exec", but on windows, its all done with threads. The reason is that system or exec will take control over your script until the program is done....whereas the following will let you launch it, and continue with the Perl program. Otherwise, why even run it from Perl? Here are some nodes to show you

Running a process in the background

MS Forking Blues

They didn't give me a fork so I have to eat with a spawn.

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum

In reply to Re: running a executable program using perl ??? by zentara
in thread running a executable program using perl ??? by thinkdifferent

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.