Geez. I am having trouble understanding your core problem.

This 8.3 naming stuff is "bad juju". Using WinXP or later, there is no reason to work with an 8.3 name. The 8.3 name for a given file varies depending upon other similar files which are in that directory and would "hash" to the same 8.3 name! There is no fixed 8.3 name for a Windows NTFS file name.

Also, with Win XP (or greater) in most (not all) cases, you can use "/" instead of "\", so this confusing "\\" stuff is not necessary.

What does this mean: the "______" to the external command has some special characters in it.?

Update:
I ran some quick tests... 

C:\PROJECTS>dir //$home
Invalid switch - "/".

C:\PROJECTS>dir /$home
Invalid switch - "$home".

C:\PROJECTS>dir \\$home
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

C:\PROJECTS>dir \$home
 Volume in drive C is Main-Max
 Volume Serial Number is 89D1-9F45

 Directory of C:\

File Not Found

C:\PROJECTS>dir "\$home"
 Volume in drive C is Main-Max
 Volume Serial Number is 89D1-9F45

 Directory of C:\

File Not Found

C:\PROJECTS>dir c:\
 Volume in drive C is Main-Max
 Volume Serial Number is 89D1-9F45

 Directory of c:\

MANY..MANY files....meaning that windows had trouble with: dir "\$home
+"

[download]
It is important that you show us exactly the code that you are using. Try again and please pay attention to what I said about 8.3 names -> don't use them! Somewhere I have the algorithm for generating 8.3 names, but it might take me a couple of hours to find it. But this one of those deals where if you have all of the information to generate the 8.3 name, then you don't need the 8.3 name! Use the NTFS 32 character name!

In reply to Re: perl windows backtick problem by Marshall
in thread perl windows backtick problem by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.