Read the DBD::Sybase docs carefully. Sybase can return multiple result sets from a query, and most of the system stored procedures do in fact do that. You should structure your result retrieval something like this:

do
{
    while(my $row = $sth->fetchrow_array)
    {
        # do something with the row
    }
} while($sth->{syb_more_results});
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Update
I forgot to add: some of what dbcc prints isn't even a result set, it's a server message (the output of print). You'll need to install an error handler, as outlined in the docs under "Sybase-specific attributes". There's an example there of how to print showplan output that you can use as a model.

Michael

Thanks for the answers. It has me on the right track, but I'm still having some growing pains. I created a new perl script that implements the "showplan" example from DBI::Sybase document. The problem is that I don't seem to get anything in $msg within the error handler. I get values in $err, $sev, $state, $line, $sql & $err_type. $server and $proc are undefined. $msg is blank. I experienced the same behaviour in a "dbcc checkdb" script I was working on earlier. I could post the "showplan" code if needed, but I'm pretty sure is functionally equivalent to the example. Thanks in advance. I hope it's not a RTFM problem. ;-)

Hmmm - I tried this:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

use DBI;

my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:Sybase:host=somehost;port=4100', 'sa', '',
               { syb_err_handler => sub { print "@_\n"; } });

$dbh->do("sp_dbcc_recommendations testdb");
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and got

0 10 1 237 gndb2 sp_dbcc_run_recommendations The checkstorage run corr
+esponding to dbid '4', opid '2', reported no faults; therefore, no co
+rrective action is necessary. sp_dbcc_recommendations smlive server
The checkstorage run corresponding to dbid '4', opid '2', reported no 
+faults; therefore, no corrective action is necessary.
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Admittedly this is on a 12.5.0.3 server, so you may get different output.

Try running with DBI->trace(3) - that should give you all of the outputs from the server in the trace file (stderr by default). You can then try to see what the problem is.

Michael