Sorry first post

system("ls > holder.log");             #send the directory listing to a holder file
open( TMPFILE, "holder.log" ) || die "Failed to create log file: $!\n";
@dirlist = <TMPFILE>;             #read in the directory from the file to the array
$fh = join(" ", @dirlist);                 #convert the array into a scalar for pattern matching
close( TMPFILE );                   #tidy up
system("rm holder.log");