You need to get your story straight. Are you trying to run a DOS/Windows batch file, or are you trying to run a DOS/Windows executable? What operating system are you using? What have you tried and how did it fail?

Pretend we know nothing at all about what you are trying to do nor about the system you are trying to do it on. That shouldn't be too hard because it is actually the case - no pretence needed!

Hi, I am trying to execute a .NET exe from Perl script which should execute on dos prompt adn return the control back to perl script. The .NET exe would be sending fax to the users adn create a .done file, which would be read from the perl script after the execution.

Then how come you say it was executed in a UNIX shell? Are you using Cygwin? Are you trying to execute a .Net program on UNIX?

Just to be clear, by "dos prompt" and "dos commands" do you mean the Windows cmd.exe shell?

IMHO, if you want to execute a .net program on windows, you should use someting like this:

    my $CmdNgen          = "$fw20cmd\\ngen.exe";
    my $ParmNgenPause    = "ngen queue pause";
    my $rc;
    $rc = ProcessItWin( $CmdNgen, $ParmNgenPause );

    sub ProcessItWin {

        my ( $ProcessCmd, $ProcessParam ) = @_;
        my $ProcessObj = undef;

        #print "Start $ProcessCmd $ProcessParam\n";

        my $rc = Win32::Process::Create( $ProcessObj, $ProcessCmd, $Pr
+ocessParam, 0, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, q{.} )
            or $rc = ErrorReport($ProcessCmd);

        my $pid = $ProcessObj->GetProcessID();

        $ProcessObj->Wait(INFINITE);

        return $rc;

    }

    sub ErrorReport {
        my $cmd = shift;
        print "\n *** Error CreateProcess: Command=$cmd, ", Win32::For
+matMessage( Win32::GetLastError() ), "\n";
        return 0;
    }
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Also please read perldoc Win32::Process

perl -e "print for qx|c:/windows/system32/cmd.exe /c test.bat| "
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Hi, Thanks for your quick response. But i need to call up a .exe from within a perl script and after execution the command should return to next step in perl script. Can you please help me out on it?

Yes - the 'qx' and backticks provide that functionality. The perl script waits for the command to complete, then executes the next perl command.

use strict;
use warnings;

my $externalExe="C:/path/to/myprog.exe";

print "Starting external program...\n";

print for qx|$externalExe 2>&1|; # Executes the program, and prints it
+'s output 

print "Program $externalExe run completed.\n";
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             I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.
                   -SNL

If you want to execute a .bat under Windows, then you need to have a script file that Windows understands.

I suggest that you type: "help start"
to see the options for that to make a more complex Windows .bat file.

To capture the output of a shell command (Windows or not) in Perl in the most simple way, use "backticks".

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $result1 = `dir`;
print $result1;

my $result2 = `dir *.txt`;
print $result2;
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