The temporary @args array is not needed, use system($dir,'&').

That's right. But it doesn't do much harm either... And in case you want to debug what is actually being passed to system, you can simply add a print @args without restructering the code, instead of duplicating the argument list and trying to keep both in sync when you make changes. This is especially handy with more unwieldy (OT: or would you say unwieldier?) argument lists. You never know when you'll need it...

my $prog = 'myprog';
my $file = 'myfile';
my @useropts = qw(-bar -baz);

my @args = ("/path/to/$prog", '-foo', @useropts, $file, '-o', "$file.o
+ut");

print "system(): @args\n";  # debug
system (@args);

# vs.

print join(" ", "system():", "/path/to/$prog", '-foo', @useropts, $fil
+e, '-o', "$file.out"), "\n";  # debug
system("/path/to/$prog", '-foo', @useropts, $file, '-o', "$file.out");
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