in reply to Getting the output of a shell command

Well the title shows that a quick
my $output = `dir/b/x *.pl`;
would do because of wanting to capture it. But on further reading your description I think if you want to use a module go with Merlyn's advise but you can always do it this way
my $output = `dir/b/x *.pl > c:\dir\dir.txt`;
$output will have nothing in it but it will create the file and populate it. But try and use the modules for portability.

--BigJoe

Learn patience, you must.
Young PerlMonk, craves Not these things.
Use the source Luke.