$/ is the input line separator, set to newline by default.
$\ is the output record separator, set to undef by default.
Several of these examples have not addressed these. It sounds like the OP is going to iterate over a list of system names and assemble the directory in parts. Single quotes and concatenation recommended:
my $nodename = 'pcname-vm';
my $directory = '//'.$nodename.'/c$/program files/adobe';