$ mv a.msg 'XYZ @ % a.msg' $ cat 'XYZ @ % a.msg' Message A $ cat script.pl print while (<>) $ perl -e ' use strict; use warnings; my @files = glob("*.msg"); for my $file (@files) { print "Filename: $file\n"; my $cmd = "perl script.pl < \Q$file\E"; system($cmd); } ' Filename: b.msg Message B Filename: c.msg Message C Filename: XYZ @ % a.msg Message A $ perl -e ' use strict; use warnings; my @files = glob("*.msg"); for my $file (@files) { print "Filename: $file\n"; my $escaped = quotemeta $file; my $cmd = "perl script.pl < $escaped"; system($cmd); } ' Filename: b.msg Message B Filename: c.msg Message C Filename: XYZ @ % a.msg Message A