exec(PROGRAM);
$result = system(PROGRAM);
Both Perl's
exec() function and
system() function execute a system shell command. The big difference is that
system() creates a fork process and waits to see if the command succeeds or fails - returning a value.
exec() does not return anything, it simply executes the command. Neither of these commands should be used to capture the output of a system call. If your goal is to capture output, you should use the
backtick operator:
$result = `PROGRAM`;
