C:\tmp>which dir which: no dir in (.;C:/WINDOWS;C:/WINDOWS/System32;C:/WINDOWS/System32/Wbem;C:/Perl/bin;C:/Program Files/gnuwin32/bin) C:\tmp>which cmd C:/WINDOWS/system32/cmd.EXE C:\tmp>perl -V:sh sh='cmd /x /c'; C:\tmp>perl -le"print `dir`" Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 1QQ1-0EF1 Directory of C:\tmp 08/22/2009 08:57 PM . 08/22/2009 08:57 PM .. 08/22/2009 08:57 PM 13 one 1 File(s) 13 bytes 2 Dir(s) 3,758,039,040 bytes free C:\tmp>perl -le"print `cmd /x /c dir`" Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 1QQ1-0EF1 Directory of C:\tmp 08/22/2009 08:57 PM . 08/22/2009 08:57 PM .. 08/22/2009 08:57 PM 13 one 1 File(s) 13 bytes 2 Dir(s) 3,757,842,432 bytes free C:\tmp>perl -le"undef $ENV{PATH};print `dir`" C:\tmp>perl -le"undef $ENV{PATH};print `C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.EXE /x /c dir`" Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 1QQ1-0EF1 Directory of C:\tmp 08/22/2009 08:57 PM . 08/22/2009 08:57 PM .. 08/22/2009 08:57 PM 13 one 1 File(s) 13 bytes 2 Dir(s) 3,756,990,464 bytes free C:\tmp>