If all the files are in a single directory, you could try to use opendir and readdir to get a list of filenames in the directory. I have found this to be simpler that trying to fight with the Unix xargs command.

If the files are is a directory tree, you could try to use File::Find::Rule.

Update: I thought this sounded familiar... I already gave this answer in Re: file$name.class find - regexp ?.