use File::Temp; sub cmdrun { my $cmd = shift; my $out = File::Temp->new(); my $err = File::Temp->new(); local $/; `$cmd >$out 2>$err`; $?>>8, scalar <$out>, scalar <$err> } use Data::Dumper; print Dumper cmdrun( q(perl -le "warn q(NOISE); print q(OUTPUT); exit 42;") );