Unfortunately this is probably not a brain teaser for you guys but i am stumped as a new perl user. The purpose is simple...to tell perl to go to a specified directory and unzip a specified file. I have an html form that is executing a perl script. I am trying to use the html variables inside the perl. I can print them...so i know i am getting them inside the script...but when i use them in a command.. they dont work...if i hard code the text with the command they work. So i am assuming for some reason perl is not evaluating the variable as its contents when used in the script. What am i doing wrong? Here is the html 
<?php
//upload and unzip a package
//this file needs to be in adminstrator folder
//and the unzip.cgi needs to be in the cgi-bin folder

if(!isset($_POST['upload'])) {
    echo " This program uploads a zip file via ftp to a server <br>";
    echo " In a particular directory and then unzips it there <br>";
    echo " Usage:  dir = directory you want it in <br>";
    echo " Example:  /frog/dog/cat  <br>";  
    echo " Usage:  zip = the zip file you want uploaded and unzips <br
+>";
    echo " Example:  phpwcms_1.3.3.zip  <br>";  
    echo '
    <form name="upload"   method="POST" action="http://mydomain.com/cg
+i-bin/undone.cgi">
    dirname<input name=dir size=55> <br />    
    zipname<input name=zip size=55> <br />  
    <input type="submit" name="upload" value="Upload">
    </form>
    ';
} else {

  } 
?>

[download]
Here is the perl 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
use CGI;
my $query = new CGI;
my $dir = $query->param('dir');
my $zip = $query->param('zip');
## Here is the commands that wont work
cd $dir
unzip $zip
## Here i can print them...just fine
print $dir;
print $zip;

[download]
If i hardcode the values of dir and zip like this cd /dog/cat and unzip rat.zip they work just fine...

In reply to HTML Form and Perl by workman_m

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