use strict;
use DBI;
use Carp;

sub DB_xxx
   {
    my ($dbUser, $dbPass, $db, $autoCommit) = @_;
    my $dbh;

    # logon to DB
    unless( $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:Oracle:' . ($$db || ''), $$dbUser, $$dbPass,
                                {AutoCommit => $$autoCommit}) )
      {

      croak "Error connecting to database $DBI::errstr \n";

      }

    return $dbh;

   }

my $user = "xxxx";
my $pass = "xxxx";
my $db ;
my $autocommit = 0;
my $dbh = DB_xxx(\$user, \$pass, \$db, \$autocommit);

#problem starts here
#if we so any unix command call or closing an file/pipe #handle after that such as using system() or backtricks it #returns -1 in $! & $? conatins "no child process"
#example
`gzip -cd filename`;
# or system("gzip -cd filename");
#or open ($fh, "gzip -cd filename|");
#or close ($fh);
print "$?:$!\n";