http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=825019


in reply to Sytem Call Not Waiting

From perldoc system :

system PROGRAM LIST Does exactly the same thing as exec LIST , except that a fork is done +first,

This fork is why "the system call never waits for the conversion to happen"

Perldoc also provides a way to wait for return :

system(@args) == 0 or die "system @args failed: $?"