system("start $command") in Win32

bhardage has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I'm trying to run a GUI testing program using Perl in Cygwin on my Windows XP.
One of the lines in my example code is as follows:

system("start calc.exe");

As I understand it, this is how you start an application and get the Perl script to continue running (I obviously need this functionality to be able to test the application) in a Win32 system, but it's generating an error. I get the 'cannot execute "start": No such file or directory' error.

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? If worse comes to worse I'll look for a new module that allows background processes, but I thought I'd be able to do it this way. Could someone correct me please?

Comment on system("start $command") in Win32 Download Code

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Re: system("start $command") in Win32 by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Feb 01, 2008 at 21:15 UTC
That's what you get for using cygwin. It works just fine from AS (or any native) perl. The problem lies in the fact that the `start` command is a shell (`cmd.exe`) built in command, but when you use system under cygwin, it doesn't fallback to using `cmd.exe` if it cannot find an executable to run the command you supply. The answer may be to do `system "cmd.exe /c start calc.exe";` Other alternatives include using cygwin's fork. BTW: Under AS/native perl, you can run a command asynchronously using `system 1, "calc.exe";` Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. "Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: system("start $command") in Win32 by dirving (Friar) on Feb 01, 2008 at 21:13 UTC
You can write: `system(1, "calc.exe")` [download] Note that is will only work on Windows and is totally unportable to other operating systems -- on most other systems you want to do a `fork` followed by `exec`. -- David Irving	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: system("start $command") in Win32 by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Feb 01, 2008 at 21:18 UTC
I doubt, but don't know for sure, if that works for cygwin builds of Perl. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. "Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."	[reply]
Re: system("start $command") in Win32 by bhardage (Initiate) on Feb 01, 2008 at 21:17 UTC
I've tried that, but it gives the same error with "1" instead of "start".	[reply]
Re^2: system("start $command") in Win32 by bhardage (Initiate) on Feb 01, 2008 at 21:19 UTC
Yes, that works. Thanks very much.	[reply]