OK, I'm trying to code the functionality of the UNIX < operator

Here is the code I have so far that doesnt work:

# command < infile

open (IN,"$infile");
@data = <IN>;
close(IN);
                                                                 
$pid = open(READ_FROM_CHILD,"-|");
unless (defined $pid) { die "cannot fork: $!"; }
                                                         
if ($pid)
{
    @result = <READ_FROM_CHILD>;
    close(READ_FROM_CHILD);
}  
else
{
$pid = open(WRITE_TO_CHILD, "|-");
unless (defined $pid) { die "cannot fork: $!"; }
                                        
    if ($pid)
    {
    print WRITE_TO_CHILD @data;
    close(WRITE_TO_CHILD);
    }
    else
    {
    exec "$path/$command";
    }
}
[download]

This doesn't work...@result is always empty. Also, the "print WRITE_TO_CHILD @data" line returns output to the screen when it should not be doing that (is STDOUT not getting redirected as it should?)

This problem has been plaguing me for days now...any help would be much appreciated.