I would not call the \docs an absolute path under Windows

Neither would I. That's why I didn't call it that. (Although I might under more casual circumstances.)

In either the case it seems to me like the OP wanted to change the current directory of the process that started the script.

Ah, could be. I assumed he tried system('cd') to change Perl's current directory. A very common mistake.

You could achieve what you think the OP wants by using for to capture a string printed by perl, then using a pair of cd to switch to that directory (or is there a switch to change both the drive and dir now?)