From the free manual for system:
This is not what you want to use to capture the output from a command, for that you should use merely backticks or qx//, as described in "`STRING`" in perlop. 
my @output = `getfilesdata file.txt`;

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Update: This is also a FAQ in perlfaq8, Why can't I get the output of a command with system()?

In reply to Re: Question using system. by toolic
in thread Question using system. by Anonymous Monk

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