I'm trying to piece it together one step at a time and so far this is all I can get working:

my @args = ("/bin/tar", "czvf",   $storageLocation.$archiveName,  $arc
+hiveDir );
system(@args) == 0 or die "system @args failed: $?";
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Here's the line from the working bash script I'm trying to copy.

tar -czvf - -g $BACKEDUP  --index-file $INDEXFILE --exclude-from $MYEX
+CLUDES --totals /home/user1/ | ssh remote_machine "cat > /mnt/mount_p
+oint/dir1/$FILENAME"
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In the process of trying to get this working with system() I wondered if I should really be using Archive::Tar and Net::SSH::Perl? My primary reason for using the OS provided tar and ssh is that I thought it would be simpler and provides behavior that I'm familiar with. Then once I had this working I could switch to the more complex(?) task of using Archive::Tar and Net::SSH:Perl.

Any advice or pointers?

And to keep this all in perspective, I'm doing this project for learning purposes. I've been working my way through Perl books but am tired of doing exercises and want something useful to do.

Here's the full script:

#!/usr/bin/perl 
use strict;
use warnings;

my $excludes = "/home/user1/scripts/perl/backup/excluded_files.txt";
                                 
my $storageLocation = "/mnt/mount_point/dir1/"; 
my $archiveName = "backup.tar.gz";
my $archiveDir = "/home/user1/temp"; 

my @args = ("/bin/tar", "czv --exclude-from=$excludes -f",   $storageL
+ocation.$archiveName,  $archiveDir );
system(@args) == 0 or die "system @args failed: $?";
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/bin/tar: Old option `b' requires an argument.
Try `/bin/tar --help' or `/bin/tar --usage' for more information.
system /bin/tar czv
--exclude-from=/home/user1/scripts/perl/backup/excluded_files.txt -f
/mnt/mount_point/dir1/backup.tar.gz /home/user1/temp failed: 5
12 at /tmp/filename.pl line 12.
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