But $? is the same thing as just reading the return value yourself, right? At any rate, $? on my Win32 system doesn't show anything except "0", no matter what is in the system call: 
$rv = system("uname");
print "Returned a $rv and \$? is $?\n";
$rv = system("ver");
print "Returned a $rv and \$? is $?\n";

[download]

Unix produces: 

SunOS
Returned a 0 and $? is 0
Returned a 65280 and $? is 65280

Windoze produces: 

Bad command or file name
Returned a 0 and $? is 0

Windows 98 [Version 4.10.1998]

Returned a 0 and $? is 0

In reply to RE: Answer: Obtaining a return code by turnstep
in thread Obtaining a return code by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post; it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • Outside of code tags, you may need to use entities for some characters:
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.