You can use the exit function to return the value to the parent process. From the parent environment you can also get the return status. If you are using the *nix , you can fetch the exit status of the previous process by printing the env variable $?.
 Hope the below example will help you!

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;


print "This is going to exit\n";
exit 2;
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$> perl aboveProgram.pl
This is going to exit
$> echo $?
2
$>
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Regards,
S.Venni Rajan.
"A Flair For Excellence."
                -- BK Systems.