Instead of system, you might want to use qx// or the `backticks`. The purpose of those constructs is to capture output of your shell commands.

Have a look at perlop for details.

Example:

perl -e "print reverse qx/dir/;"
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...(for Windows) or ....

perl -e 'print reverse qx/ls -l/;'
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...(for unix/linux).

Please see:

• Why aren't my backtick calls working on Win32?
• How do I store and manipulate the output from another process?
• How do I get both the return value and text? backticks vs. system()
• How do I get output and return code, and time-out the process under Win 32?

There is also a very nice little utility called, predictably, "Clipboard" which allows you to capture output from a DOS command prompt and copy it to the Windows Clipboard. The article may be found here: Print From Any Console Application, by Bill Wagner (a free, AFAIK, registration is required). If you go to Visual Studio Magazine and type vsep030228cs into the "Locator+ Code" field, you should be able to download the C# source as a .zip file. Usage is as follows:

Prompt> dir | clipboard -c

..copies to the clipboard.

Prompt> dir | clipboard -p

.. Prints the output

Prompt> dir | clipboard -c -p

Copies to the clipboard, and prints it.

HTH,

The simplest is to use backticks, for example:

chomp(my $hostname = `/bin/hostname`);
# Note that the chomp is necessary to remove the trailing newline
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Another option is to open a piped filehandle, eg:

my $cmd = '/bin/hostname';
open (IN, "$cmd|");
chomp(my $hostname = <IN>);
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But neither of the above methods are portable. So as usual, CPAN is your friend. Take a look at Sys::Hostname.

Cheers,
Darren :)

That's what backticks, aka qx, are for.

defined( my $hostname = `/bin/hostname`) or die "No host";
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