check perlvar and you will get this
$CHILD_ERROR
$? The status returned by the last pipe close, backtick (``)
command, successful call to "wait()" or "waitpid()", or fr
+om the
"system()" operator. This is just the 16-bit status word
returned by the traditional Unix "wait()" system call (or
+else
is made up to look like it). Thus, the exit value of the
subprocess is really ("$? >> 8"), and "$? & 127" gives whi
+ch
signal, if any, the process died from, and "$? & 128" repo
+rts
whether there was a core dump.
update:
sorry, misunderstanding the question
you have got the return value of the backtick command. just as CountZero posted.