Under Windows, you can use Process Monitor to watch the OS calls performed by some program under the hood. Using it, you should be able to see what system does different that causes your script to fail.

Take a look at Proc::Background also.

Regarding your latest query, system documentation talks about the Unix port of Perl. Windows OSs do not support fork at all (and even exec is probably just emulated there).

In reply to Re: [Have solution now but am still puzzled] Why can't I give system the same command I've been giving to exec? by salva
in thread [Have solution now but am still puzzled] Why can't I give system the same command I've been giving to exec? by Narveson

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