I tried your program and it works fine (I use Solaris), I guess the problem lies in the fact that my perl script is called from another perl script.

So if we add the following test code:
#######
# calling.pl

eval { system ("test.pl"); };
$exit_val = $? >> 8;

to call your previous test code. If I then run calling.pl and use ctrl-c, I get returned value as 0.

Mags