You can do away with the FIFO entirely using IO::Scalar. Hope this helps. :) tie *OUT, 'IO::Scalar', \$foo

Then select this filehandle in whatever code needs to have its output captured.

By the way, this question's somewhat misnamed -- when it comes down to it, you want to get some output into a variable; the FIFO problems are just an artifact of the particular approach that you're taking. Despite this, you only devote the first and last sentences to your real goal.

In general, you'll get more useful responses if you say "I want to do X! (Y is what came to mind, but it doesn't work quite right)" rather than "I'm doing Y! (p.s. it's because I want X)". X is desired, Y is nonessential, so focus on X, not Y. I hope that makes sense. :)

hdp.