I'm not sure if this is relevant, but check the following node:

Re: system command erroneously states 'can't spawn <executable>' from jimbojones

The code (from 5.8.9) win32.c that might be causing the problem 

int
Perl_do_aspawn(pTHX_ SV *really, SV **mark, SV **sp)
{
    char **argv;
    char *str;
    int status;
    int flag = P_WAIT;
    int index = 0;

    if (sp <= mark)
    return -1;

    get_shell();
    Newx(argv, (sp - mark) + w32_perlshell_items + 2, char*);

    if (SvNIOKp(*(mark+1)) && !SvPOKp(*(mark+1))) {
    ++mark;
    flag = SvIVx(*mark);
    }

    while (++mark <= sp) {
    if (*mark && (str = SvPV_nolen(*mark)))
        argv[index++] = str;
    else
        argv[index++] = "";
    }
    argv[index++] = 0;

    status = win32_spawnvp(flag,
               (const char*)(really ? SvPV_nolen(really) : argv[0]),
               (const char* const*)argv);

    if (status < 0 && (errno == ENOEXEC || errno == ENOENT)) {
    /* possible shell-builtin, invoke with shell */
    int sh_items;
    sh_items = w32_perlshell_items;
    while (--index >= 0)
        argv[index+sh_items] = argv[index];
    while (--sh_items >= 0)
        argv[sh_items] = w32_perlshell_vec[sh_items];

    status = win32_spawnvp(flag,
                   (const char*)(really ? SvPV_nolen(really) : argv[0]
+),
                   (const char* const*)argv);
    }

    if (flag == P_NOWAIT) {
    PL_statusvalue = -1;    /* >16bits hint for pp_system() */
    }
    else {
    if (status < 0) {
        if (ckWARN(WARN_EXEC))
        Perl_warner(aTHX_ packWARN(WARN_EXEC), "Can't spawn \"%s\": %s
+", argv[0], strerror(errno));
        status = 255 * 256;
    }
    else
        status *= 256;
    PL_statusvalue = status;
    }
    Safefree(argv);
    return (status);
}

[download]
Notice that if the executable returns a negative error code, the assumption is that the spawn didn't work.

In reply to Re: Can't spawn "cmd.exe": by Sandy
in thread Can't spawn "cmd.exe": by emalossi

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