Is there any reason that you aren't using a built in file test? 
$counter = -e "/tmp/myfile.txt";

[download]
That is less code, doesn't launch a new process, and you won't run into trouble if you're passed a filename with things like spaces in it.

To learn more about the available filetests in Perl, check out http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/-X.html.

In reply to Re: Suppression of Output Message by tilly
in thread Suppression of Output Message by bichonfrise74

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