my $cmd = 'java -jar bogus.jar > bogus.log 2>&1 &'; system($cmd) == 0 or die "Failed to run command: [$cmd]\n"; if ($? == -1) { print "failed to execute: $!\n"; } elsif ($? & 127) { printf "child died with signal %d, %s coredump\n", ($? & 127), ($? & 128) ? 'with' : 'without'; } else { printf "child exited with value %d\n", $? >> 8; }